


Smiles bringing sunshine

by nymphori



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Horimiya!AU, Love so Life insp, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-13 17:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 63,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5710141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymphori/pseuds/nymphori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keiji opens the door to find his sister covered in blood and holding hands with a stranger. What he doesn’t expect to find is that it’s actually his volleyball captain, and that soon Bokuto will become a regular fixture in his home and in his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Morning, Akaashi!”  

Keiji looked up, wholly unsurprised to see that it was Takei who was racing across the club room to him.  

“Morning, Takei.”  

The boy was hovering, sitting on the the chair right next to the one Keiji was occupying, leaning into what Keiji would definitely call his personal space. He didn’t even need to look directly at him to know that there would be a pout on his face.

  “Akaa _shi_ ,” he could even hear the pout in his voice. “I totally forgot that we had english first period today.” Keiji made the mistake of looking and found Takei draped across the table, scattering his play diagrams. As suspected, he was peering up at Keiji with large eyes and an even larger pout on his face. “Please let me copy your notes!”

  He let out a sigh, “Did you forget to do your translations?” He watched the sheepish look pass over Takei’s face. “Again?” He said, just to rub it in. After all, he had said the same thing last Tuesday, and the Tuesday before that. Keiji thought it was less of an _I forgot_ and more of an _I can copy off of Akaashi in between volleyball drills and not worry about it_ kind of thing. But Keiji was weak and Takei was a self proclaimed _best friend_ ; so he ended up handing over his notes anyway.  

“Fine, I guess there’s no helping it.”

  “Thanks! I’ll pay you back.” Keiji only smiled in response, he had heard that the last few times as well.

  Before Takei could even get started on copying out the notes though Bokuto arrived, which meant it was time to _actually_ get ready for practice. Keiji scooped up the papers that had been strewn across the table to put back into his bag, and then followed Takei to their lockers, where they began to change out of their uniforms and into their training clothes.  

“By the way,” Takei started, shucking his shirt over his shoulders, rather than undoing the buttons. “I was at a mixer last night,” and there was Keiji’s confirmation that _forgot_ had actually meant _doing something else_. “One of the girls recognised me from the volleyball team.” Keiji pulled his practice jersey down and looked at Takei - he should have sounded more excited about that in Akaashi’s opinion. “She asked me if I could give her your mail address.” Well now Keiji understood why he wasn’t excited about the girls attention. “Can I tell her?”  

Keiji stared him down until he was fully dressed and looking back. “Why would I give my mail address out to someone I haven't met?” He made his way over to the door of the club room with Takei in tow. “How does she even know me anyway? I didn’t play against Maimon with you last week.” It had been a practice game, and against a public school that didn't have the best volleyball team. So Fukurodani had sent out their second string, those who would fill the places of the third years once they retired. Keiji had not played, he hadn't even gone to watch.

  “She said she saw you at the Inter High and was interested.”  

Keiji didn't understand how someone could become interested in him without even talking to him. “I still don't know her, if she doesn't come and ask for it herself, she won’t get it.”  

Takei gave him a light nudge in the shoulder. “Not again, next time you should just come to the mixer with—“

  “Who’s notes are these!” Keiji turned to look over to where Komi was shouting from, and then cast his eyes to Takei, as if knowing what he was looking for Takei waved the notes he held in his hand. They weren't his then.

  In the gymnasium he dropped off his jacket on the side of the court, and then began a couple of laps with Takei in tow. He grabbed a drink bottle from Suzumeda, before he sat down to stretch with Takei. He was leant forward with Takei pressing down on his back and he could feel the stretch come through up the back of his thighs.  

“Akaashi!”  

Keiji yelped as Takei pushed his further down than his body was used to. Bokuto’s surprise appearance have made Takei jump.  

“Yes, Bokuto-san?” He questioned as he shot a glare at Takei behind him. A guilty look was returned back, Keiji wasn't really angry per say, but it had hurt.  

“Here you dropped your notes.” Bokuto thrust two pieces of papers at him and then moved to jog around the court with the other third years who had now come out from the club room.  

“Thanks.” He looked at the notes and realised that they were his. They were his play notes that he had been going over before practice. He must have missed some of them when he was packing them into his bag. He put his notes to the side and glared at Takei. “Your turn for stretching now.”  

He watched him gulp in distress, enjoying the moment despite himself. “It was an accident! Who knew that Bokuto-senpai could be quiet enough to sneak up?”  

He had a point.

  “More importantly, there’s a group of us in class going to karaoke tonight. Do you want to come?”  

Keiji pushed down gently on his friends back. “Sorry, I can’t.” He let Takei up from the stretch.  

“Aw,” he turned around to Keiji with a pout on his face for the _third_ time this morning, “you never can!”  

Keiji sighed in return and led them both into the next set of stretches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was no practice after school that day, Tuesdays were rest days, and he was spared from extra practice with Bokuto thanks to the third years having guidance meetings. Keiji waved goodbye to Takei and the others at the school gate. They left with a call promising that next time they would go to karaoke together - Keiji didn't promise in return.  

He walked home, lost among the crowd of students also heading in that direction. Having no practice meant there was no rush to get home, and that he still had an hour before he needed to pick his sister up from school. It gave him time to go home first, drop off his bag and clean up a little before going out again to fetch her. It was nice not needing to rush there straight after training for once.

  “I’m home!” He called out, stepping through the front door. He sat in the genkan to take off his shoes, and was soon met with the pattering of feet heading towards him.  

“Welcome home Keiji.” He turned to see Shiharu come out from the kitchen, one child clinging to her leg and another in her arms. Two other children were already half way down the hall to where Keiji was still sitting. “At least let him come inside.” Shiharu sighed.  

Dutifully, the two boys who had run for him stopped, waiting until Keiji had stood up from the genkan and into the hall as well before tackling his legs. “Welcome home Kei-nii!” They called together.  

“Thanks.” Keiji smiled down at them, and they smiled back up - wanting to be picked up, but with both of them there it was impossible, he could only carry one child at a time. He grasped their hands, one in each of his - a compromise - and walked with them into the main room of the house. A race track had been set up inside, which both of the boys ran to as soon as Keiji entered the room after them.

“I’ll take my bag to my room and then be back okay?”

Keiji walked upstairs to his room, third door on the left, and put his school bag down under the desk. He pulled out his homework to put out on the desk as a reminder for later, and realised that he had never received his english notes back from Takei.  

A quick look around the room showed that Keiko had gone through many outfits this morning before choosing what to wear. He didn’t know why a five year old needed to drag out so many clothes before going out for the day. Keiji dreaded that when she became a teenager it would probably get much worse. He picked up her clothes, folded them and put them away in her drawer set. Then he climbed the ladder to her bunk bed to make it up for her. Keiko would never make the bed herself, but she wouldn’t go back into it until it had been made properly. Shiharu had once told Keiji that when he went away for school trips Keiko would sleep in her bed the first night and then Keiji’s bed the next night because hers wouldn’t be made.

  Also on Keiko’s bed he found the book he had been reading to her last night for her to fall asleep to. She had asked to keep it when he left her to sleep so that she could look at the pictures. He also dug out her stuffed snowy owl from the depths of her blanket to sit on her pillow.  

There was still half an hour until he needed to pick her up from the nursery. He eyed the laundry basket in the corner of the room. It wasn’t full, but it was enough for a small load, and he had afternoon practices for the rest of the week. Now was the best time to do it if he didn’t want it piling up too much.   Keiji carried it to the laundry room, put it in the machine with a scoop of washing powder and set it to wash. Done.  

On the way back to the boys he asked Shiharu if she needed any help in the kitchen. Her reply was a wave of her arm in the direction of the living area and _just relax while you can_.  

“You took so long Kei-nii!” Kanata called as soon as he saw Keiji reappear. He stood up with a car in hand to drag Keiji onto the mat with his brother. “You have to be the red car, because the red car is the fastest and you’re the fastest.”  

“I wanted to be the red car.” Yuudai was sulking.  

“What colour car did you get?” Keiji asked.  

“Pink.” Keiji may have understood why he was sulking. “I don’t want to be pink.”  

“I wanna be pink!” Last he had seen Akane she had been colouring in at the bench in the kitchen, now she was running in to join their group. Her brother Aoi however continued to cling to Shiharu as she cooked, not interested in playing. Keiji thought, yet again, that Aoi was far too serious than any three year old had the right to be.  

Akane had now taken the car from Yuudai. “Where do we race?” She fell into Keiji’s lap, bouncing wildly as she spoke.  

“The hall.” Kanata replied. This was news to Keiji, he had assumed they were racing on the track that they were all sat around. Maybe he should have come down earlier, then playing wouldn't necessarily have involved running around the house. This way was bound to cause trouble.  

“Racing stripes!” Akane called out. She turned around in his lap, and Keiji realised that she had run over with the pens that she had been colouring with. Before he had time to react she had drawn what felt like a shaky line across his face, cheek to cheek. He had not been expecting that.  

“Now me!” Akane handed him the pink pen and Keiji had no choice but to draw a line across her face, the same place he had felt her draw on him. “I need two to go faster!” He didn't understand the logic but drew a second line below the first, so that it ran just under her nose. 

Yuudai was the last to have his racing stripes drawn, black after his newly chosen car, which had ended up being striped the whole way down his face. Kanata had four green stripes so of course Yuudai had needed to be faster than his brother. This made Akane reach for the pink again to draw an extra line on her face. At Yuudai’s insistence, Keiji received another stripe, just one on his left cheek, because he was _fast enough already_ and also _red_.

  When everyone was ready, Akane ran to collect her brother to judge. They moved out to the hallway and Keiji was told what the race was, down to the genkan and back.   The race started and Keiji was first to the other end of the hall, but in true sportsmanship acted out an elaborate fall into the genkan, which let Kanata and Yuudai battle it out for the return leg of the race. Keiji spent the return journey being chased down by Akane. It was fun, it always was if it got the younger ones laughing. Even serious Aoi was in debate with Kanata and Yuudai over who had won.

Yuudai had thrown his car in front of his brother to win, but Kanata was saying that they actually had to make it to the finish themselves, Aoi was too serious and said that they both won because they were two different races, the car race and the people race, and was also cheering Akane up because she _won last place_. Keiji had the briefest thought that Aoi was a thirty year old in a three year old’s body.

  Seiji, appeared to have been summoned by the noise from his office. He took one look at them all before herding the four younger ones up to the bathroom to wash their faces. Keiji took the opportunity to help Shiharu with clearing up the kitchen from where she had finished preparing dinner. Keiji admired the way she prepared all the food ahead of time, so that by the time everyone in the house was home, all that needed to be completed was actually cooking it. Then the last person home had enough time to pack away their things and get changed and they could all sit down to eat together. Keiji definitely admired the organisation.

They finished cleaning up right as Seiji came downstairs with the now clean faced children. He ushered them into the lounge where they all used their cars on the mat on the floor. Seiji then came into the kitchen, he gave his wife a kiss on the cheek and Keiji looked away in embarrassment.  

“I’m going out to pick the girls up if you wanted a ride.”  

Keiji look to the clock on the wall and was shocked to realise that he should have left ten minutes ago if he wanted to pick up Keiko on time. Seiji smiled down at him and Shiharu appeared to be giggling at him behind a hand.  

“If that’s okay, it would help.”  

Seiji ruffled his hair. “Of course it’s okay. You know I pick her up every other day. I just know this is when you usually like to spend time together. It’s really nothing out of my way to pick you kids up.” Keiji frowned at being called a kid, which caused Shiharu’s giggles to no longer be muffled.  

“Stop frowning Keiji, we’ll leave in a few.”  

Seiji disappeared into his study and Keiji went to go put his shoes on while he waited.

  He had only managed to put one shoe on when the door opened from the outside. Keiji was concerned, because there were seven people at home, and they were about to leave and pick up the only other three people who lived here. Nobody should have been opening the door.

  He was doubly startled to find that it was _Keiko_ who was opening the door. “Onii-chan! I’m home.” She called out. Keiji was silent in shock. Until he noticed that Keiko had blood on her face, and also on both of her knees.  

“Keiko! What happened to you?” Keiji reached up to dust his hands over her knees, and then more gently over her face.

  “I fell down.”  

“How? Where? How did you get home? Why didn’t you clean yourself up?”

There were towels in the genkan, stored for rainy days when people would come home soaking wet. Keiji reached for one now to wipe at Keiko’s face, and once the dried blood had been removed, he was relieved to see that it was only a small scratch on her face. He moved to clean what he could of her knees, she would probably need to wash off before dinner.  

“Um, excuse me.” Keiji was startled by the voice. His eyes had been so drawn to his sister bleeding that he hadn't even noticed that she was holding hands with someone. Someone with white hair and glowing golden eyes, were they _cosplaying?_ Now that Keiji had his attention on them, they lifted their hand from Keiko’s grasp and rubbed at the back of their neck. “She seems fine, so I guess I’ll head out.”  

The person was dressed strangely. Wearing skinny jeans and a collared shirt, but also a _happi_ that was decorated with waves over the top. They were either a cosplayer, or perhaps worked at a fishmonger. Keiji was slightly embarrassed for the fact that he had completely ignored them while looking over his sisters injuries.  

“Thank you so much for your help.”  

“Don’t worry about it, see you.” They turned to leave, but were stopped by Keiko grabbing at their _happi_.  

“Keiko?”  

“Onii-san stay here.”  

“Uh, but…” Keiko’s saviour seemed to be torn between the teary eyes that he was being shown, and overstaying his welcome.  

Keiji through a quick look over his shoulder, Seiji and Shiharu were standing together at the entry to the kitchen watching the scene. Shiharu gave him a small nod.  

“No, it’s fine. Come in.” Keiji addressed the man. “Anyway, I’d like to thank you.” Keiko smiled.  

“Sorry for the trouble.” The stranger toed off his shoes while Keiko took off hers and set the guest slippers up for him to wear. Keiji led them both into the kitchen to make some drinks. Seiji meanwhile left to pick up the other two girls from school, and Shiharu went to sit in the lounge, sliding the partition between the two rooms shut as she went.  

Keiko and her saviour sat at the bench while Keiji made coffee for himself and the man, and a glass of water for Keiko.  

“Sorry about this,” the man said after they Keiji had joined them.

  “No, it’s fine!” Keiji assured. He didn't really know what else to say, so he pulled his mug to his lips and took a sip of coffee to fill the silence.

  Keiko filled it for him. “Onii-san, do you not like coffee?” The strangers mug was still sitting untouched on the table.

  “Nope!” He smiled widely at her.

 _Oops_. Was all Keiji could think. He should have asked if he’d prefer tea, or water. _Oh well_.

Keiji watched the stranger as he talked with his sister. Mostly mesmerised by the colour of his hair. It was as white as an old mans, and yet surely he was not nearly old enough to warrant such a hair colour.

“She was playing with the cats, when they got under her feet and she tripped.”  

Keiji had tuned in just in time to hear what had happened. “Ah, so that explains the scratches. Sorry to cause you all this trouble.”

  He smiled at Keiji. “It was no trouble at all, Keiko-chan seems to be quite levelheaded. When I asked her name and address she had no trouble telling me where it was.”  

That was actually a surprise - someone calling Keiko levelheaded. “Oh not at all.”

  “Still, I had no idea you had such a big family Akaashi.”

  “What?” Keiji was lucky not to spit his coffee out at the statement. Did this person know him? Did he know _them_?  

Keiko was looking at him strangely. _Of course_ , Keiko would have given her full name when she told the stranger where she lived. “You are Akaashi right? Akaashi Keiji?”

  “Yes, I am.” Keiji found it hard to reason that Keiko had given off _his_ full name as well. “Do you go to my school?”  

The look of shock that passed over the strangers face was incredible. “What are you talking about Akaashi, we just had practice this morning. Am I that forgettable?”

  Practice? This morning?

  “It’s Bokuto.”  

“Bokuto-san?” Keiji felt the words out slowly. It was a good thing he had put his coffee down or he might have dropped it. _Bokuto_. Bokuto from his school _Bokuto_. His volleyball captain _Bokuto_. Bokuto, who he had seen nearly every school day for the last year and a half _Bokuto_. Bokuto who he had shared rooms at training camps with _Bokuto_. Bokuto who he had thought he had known quite well and was reasonably close to _Bokuto_. How had he not recognised him? “…but your hair?” Keiji used his hands to pull his own hair up at the sides in imitation of how he was used to seeing Bokuto’s hair, it didn’t quite work, but he thought the idea came across anyway.

  “I could say the same for you, why do you have face paint on?”  

Keiji had forgotten about his _racing stripes_. He picked up his coffee to take another sip and avoid thinking about the heat in his cheeks.

“You _never_ want to have fun at training.” Bokuto whined, possibly talking about the last training camp where Keiji had need to confiscate markers from Bokuto to stop him from drawing on sleeping teammates.

Keiji thought that if he had heard that whine he would have definitely known that it was Bokuto, also if he had been speaking at his normal volume, instead of the way he had been talking - a much appreciated indoor level.

Keiji finished his coffee. Bokuto took a sip of his, made a disgusted face and put the cup back down. The front door was heard opening, meaning that Seiji had returned with Nao and Rio. He must have taken them into the lounge with the others though, because they didn’t come bounding into the kitchen to call out that they were home and ready for food.

  Bokuto took this as his cue to leave. Standing up, he called goodbye to Keiko, and as Keiji walked him back to the front door he saw Bokuto wave to everyone in the lounge. Keiji was shocked to see all eight of them looking up and waving back.

  Keiko held his hand and bid a teary farewell to Bokuto when he made it outside.

“Will he come back onii-chan?”   Keiko asked as soon as the door had closed, with wide, teary eyes.

What was Keiji supposed to say to that face?

“Of course he can come again.”  

He hadn’t even thought to ask his parents if it was okay for Bokuto to come again, even though he had thought a lot of things regarding Bokuto’s appearance at his doorstep. Like why was Keiko playing with cats at the school? What had Bokuto been doing there? Why had Bokuto been wearing a _happi_?


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning at training Keiji pointedly ignores Bokuto. Luckily they are only performing drills so it’s not so obvious, although he is sure that Bokuto has noticed. Bokuto also doesn't appear to be doing anything to make Keiji talk to him for once; lining up for tosses from their third year setter without comment.  

Afternoon practice is another story because they are playing games of three on three and Bokuto is on his team, as he almost always is. So is Takei, and he has definitely noticed something is wrong.  

“What do you keep glaring at Akaashi? What’s wrong?”  

“Nothing, I’m fine.” Keiji snaps back, and then regrets it. He had no reason to snap at his friend.

  “I see.”

They get through to the end of practice, and it is as everyone is getting changed back into their uniforms that Keiji remembered his promise to Keiko. And the permission that Keiji had received from Shiharu almost immediately afterwards.

  He dressed slowly for once, catching Bokuto’s eye and hoping to convey that they needed to talk. Keiji knew it had gone through when Bokuto shouted out for Konoha to go ahead because he needed to lock up and then talk to their adviser afterwards. Keiji had more trouble shooing Takei away, and only managed to do so at the school gates. He watched Takei head after the others towards the station while he waited at the gate for Bokuto, wondering if he actually _did_ need to talk to their advisor and maybe Keiji had in fact got it all wrong.  

It took five minutes for Bokuto to run down the path towards him.  

“Can I talk to you?” Keiji yelled out to him before he was even close. Bokuto’s eyebrows went up in surprise and he slowed down.  

“I thought that was the point?” So he had gotten Keiji’s telepathic message, that was nice.

  Keiji started walking along the path to his house, and Bokuto fell into step beside him. There really no way to ease into what he needed to say, Bokuto probably already knew anyway. “Would you like to come over again?”  

“I can come over again!” It wasn’t a question, Bokuto seemed to be really happy at the invite.  

“Keiko said that she wanted to play with you again.”

  “Really!” Bokuto’s whole face seemed to brighten up. “Should I get something for her?” He trailed off into his own thoughts, possibly on what he wanted to buy.

  “No, you don’t have to go that far.” Bokuto didn't need to spoil her, Keiko had seemed to be happy enough just at the thought of him coming over again. This time to play.

  “I’m actually surprised.”  

“Why?”  

“I thought you would be avoiding me after yesterday.”  

“Why would I do that?” Keiji asked, knowing that he _had_ been avoiding Bokuto this morning, and had still been acting weird during afternoon practice as well. “I mean it was a little creepy when I didn’t know who you were. I mean with what were you wearing, and-“ Keiji threw a glance up at Bokuto’s hair “-your hair was completely different from what I’m used to.” Bokuto looked away from him and kicked at a rock on the path. It took a second for Keiji to register that he was blushing.

“What are you blushing about?”  

Bokuto’s cheeks took on a deeper tinge as he looked up at Keiji. “I’m just not used to talking to you when it isn't related to the team or something.” He laughed to himself. “It's kind of awkward.”  

Keiji hummed in agreement. It was nice to know that he wasn't the only one who felt it. “You should keep you hair like that more often.” Keiji once again threw a look at the intricate style that Bokuto's hair was currently gelled into. “It was much more normal, well except for the colour that wasn't normal.” He took a second to remember Bokuto’s hair the way it had been the day before. “You didn’t have streaks in your hair yesterday.”  

Bokuto was nodding silently to himself.

  “It was also lighter, like, almost white.” Keiji hummed. “Not whatever colour that is.” Today the bulk of Bokuto's hair appeared grey, shades darker than what Keiji remembered of the day before.

  “Yeah, I put the streaks in every morning.”  

Keiji nodded, and then realised what had been said. “You put them in every morning?” He looked up at the hair of mystery. “You mean that’s not permanent?”

  “Like my dad would ever let me.”  

That was all Bokuto got to say before Keiji was opening up the gate and leading Bokuto up to the front door. He didn't even manage to finish calling out greetings before Keiko ran out to throw herself over her knew friend. Akane had taken the opportunity to throw herself at Keiji, and he could see Kanata and Yuudai poking their heads out from the lounge at the commotion. Shiharu just waved at them from the kitchen and said they could go up to their room and she would bring up some snacks. Keiji lead the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suddenly, it became normal for Bokuto to visit every afternoon after practice, and for the rest of the week they left the club room in the evenings together to walk to home. Sometimes Bokuto's hair was held up, as expected, and other times it lay white and flat against his head. Keiji soon discovered that this was entirely dependent on whether Bokuto washed his hair or not after practice; which in turn depended entirely on how many people were still around when he went into the shower.

White hair, Keiji learned that for whatever reason, Bokuto had _naturally white_ hair.

He also soon learned that Bokuto had been teased for it in the past, bullied for it. And over time he had thought to put in streaks and style his hair, because that way he could just convince people that it was on purpose. Given his name and the way he chose to style it, Keiji thought that it was actually a pretty smart thing to do. The kind of genius move that Konoha would hate him for.

When the weekend finally arrived, even without school Bokuto somehow ended up at Keiji's doorstep. He came bearing a box of what turned out to be mackerel on ice, brought from home at the insistence of his parents to thank them for the trouble of looking after Bokuto everyday. Keiji's own parent's wanted to refuse, until Bokuto told them that they received an abundance of fish at the shrine from the fisherman who wanted to thank them for the haul.

Another thing to learn: Bokuto was heir to a shrine in the fishing district.

It took some coaxing, but he was also able to learn that the fisherman had created a kind of local legend regarding Bokuto's hair. Regarding the hair of his _entire_ family because apparently it was inherited. Keiji didn't get to learn the legend, but thought that it was interesting enough to think on. _What would cause a person's hair to turn white?_

Something Keiji didn't learn, but that had just happened-

A week.

A week was all it had taken for Bokuto to ingratiate himself into Keiji's family. A week was all it had taken for Keiji to _expect_ Bokuto to come over, for Keiko to ask if _onii-san_ was coming over, for Shiharu to always make an extra serving of food to send up to Keiji's bedroom for them all. A week was all it had taken.

On Monday night, Bokuto had been invited over again. Keiji knew that Keiko liked having someone else to play with, and he didn't mind having Bokuto over because it made her happy; but he didn't understand really, why it was that _he_ kept coming over. Bokuto claimed that he liked the company, that he liked the food, that he got sick of eating fish all the time - something he had needed to assure Shiharu _was fine_ after she overheard the day she prepared the mackerel that Bokuto had brought over for them - that it was nice to eat someone else's cooking. Keiji _did_ know that Bokuto liked hearing about what the other members of his family were up to, for those few moments of catching up with everyone before Shiharu shuffled them up to the bedroom.

Keiji knew that the younger kids liked listening to Bokuto talk as well, because apparently he spoke of much more exciting volleyball practices - more exciting than Keiji remembered them being.

He knew why Shiharu kept wanting Bokuto over as well, she liked that Keiji had invited someone into his life again - seeing as he had never brought friends home before. The others did, he and Keiko did not. His parents liked Bokuto, because he came over, came into their home, and brought his own infectious happiness with him. He made the both of them happy. Keiji liked his parents looking out for him, even if he was a bit apprehensive that they thought he lacked a social life - he spent all his time at school and in club with people, sometimes Keiji just enjoyed the time he had to spend with his family.

They never spent long with Keiji's family though, instead most of the evenings were spent with the three of them in Keiji's room.

This night found Nao joining them though.

Keiko was sat in Bokuto's lap, where they rested on the bed reading a book together. Keiji sat at his desk with Nao, helping her with her homework. Japanese literature was the topic for the day as they looked over the book that she was working on in class. Keiji liked this, liked helping out like this. Felt more like part of the family when he was able to contribute his own time and knowledge to help out - he didn't want to feel like a burden, even if he was the only one thinking that he was such a thing. Helping out always pulled him away from those thoughts.

"Keiji?" Shiharu's voice was accompanied by a knock at the door. He made a sound of assent and then the door was pushed open from the outside, just enough for Shiharu to poke her head through.

Keiji looked up from where he was helping Nao with some kanji that she didn't recognise, to show that he was listening.

"Do you have practice after school tomorrow?"

It was a Tuesday, they didn't have official practice, it would depend on whether or not he and Bokuto worked on their attacks alone. So he turned to Bokuto to double check what it was that they were planning.

Bokuto was watching the conversation, Keiko now huddled in his arms and appearing to be asleep. "No practice tomorrow Shiharu-san!" He cheered happily. Keiji kept his eyes on Keiko momentarily, watching to see if she moved. She didnt, so it was most likely that she was asleep.

"Keiji could you help out with this tomorrow then please?" Keiji turned back to the door to see Shiharu holding out a catalogue to him - groceries.

"I can do that, is there anything important to get?"

With such a large family it wasn't strange for them to go out shopping for just a couple of items, particularly if they were discounted for the day and could be bought in bulk. A couple of weeks ago Keiji had gone out with Seiji, both of them walking home under the weight of as many shiitake mushrooms as they could carry.

"Eggs mostly, but I've circled a few other things in there too."

"Okay." Keiji smiled at her, and received one in return as well as a hand ruffling up his hair. Shiharu did the same thing to Nao next to him. She moved to Keiko next, stroking over her head - definitely asleep then - and Keiji even watched as Shiharu seemed to hover over Bokuto's head before retreating back to the desk, strange and magical hair untouched.

"Don't study too long you two. The bath is still hot and Bokuto-kun needs to go home."

She left, closing the door behind her. Almost immediately Nao stretched her arms out behind her, closed the book, and said that they could do more tomorrow; leaving as well. Likely to have the next bath - they didn't really have an order, once dinner was cleaned up Shiharu bathed with the twins and afterwards it was a matter of finding someone who was free to go in next, up until Seiji went in at the end of the night and cleaned up the bathroom. Thus finishing off their nightly routine.

"What's that?" Bokuto says quietly from the bed; Keiji was still amazed at how quiet he could be when it was necessary. "A supermarket ad?"

"Yeah, eggs are on sale tomorrow. A dozen for ninety-eight yen." Bokuto hummed in acknowledgement and Keiji thumbed through a few pages of the catalogue. "Tomatoes too."

Keiji looked up then, just in time to watch Bokuto as he carefully moved Keiko from his lap. Bokuto held her delicately in his arms and looked at the ladder up to her bed. Keiji hid a smile behind his hand, and soon he was hiding a dropped jaw behind his hand as Bokuto actually climbed up the rungs with one hand on the rails and his sister curled tightly in his other arm. Keiji was going to tell Bokuto to just put Keiko to sleep in his own bed, until he saw Bokuto reach the top. Watched as Bokuto balanced there, pulled the blankets from the bed and place Keiko down. Then he pulled the blankets back up and tucked her in, snowy owl plush in her arms and everything. Keiji couldn't help but be impressed.

"Akaashi?" _Oh_ , and he had been staring.

"The sale tomorrow isn't limited items, so we can get as many as possible." He trailed off to read through the rest of the catalogue, making a note of the items that Shiharu had circled.

Keiji sat up straighter when he felt the presence at his back. "Isn't it going to be hard to get there in time after school finishes? This says the sale is only until four." Keiji could feel the ghost of Bokuto's breath at the base of his neck.

"I'll be fine. As long as Takei remembers his homework there won't be a problem."

Keiji slid the catalogue into the pile of homework he needed to tackle after his bath. "I'll get them." He said it with finality. Shiharu trusted him to get the food for them, and Keiji would not let her down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To say that Koutarou was shocked to find the note was an understatement. He recognised the handwriting, had always been able to recognise it. The catalogue he recognised too, from just the night before. He let out a long sigh, and read the note.

                              _You are coming today right?_  
_Takei is I have to help Takei with homework,_  
_if possible could you please go shopping for me._  
_Thank you._  
_\- Akaashi_

Fuck. Akaashi wanted him to go grocery shopping for him. Which Koutarou didn't mind, not when Akaashi had apparently also tucked a few one thousand yen notes into his outdoor shoes. He doesn't mind helping out, not when he has spent time there nearly every day for the last week. He owes Akaashi's family something, owes Akaashi something. Even if it's just going to the store for them. The trouble with it, is that Koutarou pulls out his phone to see the display shining back at him 3:37. He had twenty minutes in which to get to the store and get the groceries while everything was still on sale.

He pulled the notes out from his shoes and stuffed them in his pocket along with his phone, and quickly put them on. Then he raced out of the school, he might have heard someone calling out his name, but he was in too much of a rush. Out the doors, through the gates, and down the street.

Where even was the closest store? Was he even going the right way?

Koutarou stopped and pulled the catalogue up to his face and flipped to the back page. He was in luck, there was a map.

It was further than he had thought, he would have to run the entire way in order to get there on time. Would he make it? He had to. Akaashi was counting on him, and Akaashi's mum was counting on _him_. Koutarou couldn't let both of them down, they might decide not to let him go over again. He could do this, he could sprint, he was top five in the country, and if challenges like this stalled him then how was he ever going to break the top three? Number one?

He chanted as he ran, encouragements. _Sale_. _Sale_. _Sale_. _Sale_. Sprinting was for a long time was not something he was really used to, but he would do it. _Sale_. _Sale_. _Sale_. _Sale_.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time Keiji made it home from helping Takei with last minute work that he had needed to hand in, Bokuto had long been home. According to Shiharu he had been a panting mess, and the story was that he had sprinted to the shops and then used all the money he had been given to stock up on eggs, tomatoes, and the few other things that had been on the list. Keiji was impressed. Bokuto would have needed to make it to the store and have everything ready to check out by four, which apparently he had succeeded in.

More than succeeded in, given the dinner that Keiji could see everybody else clearing up.

Keiko and Bokuto were sat in his room when he went up to drop his bag off, and he noticed that they hadn't eaten yet.

"Onii-chan's home!" Keiko cheered upon seeing him. "Now we can eat!" She raced from the room, likely to go let Shiharu know they wanted to eat now. It was unnecessary, Shiharu knew that he was home now, but he let Keiko run off anyway.

"Sorry about sending you out."

"Housewives are scary." Bokuto draped himself dramatically over the table in the centre of the room. "I'm never going to a sale again."

"I'm surprised you managed to do so well for your first time." Keiji didn't really know how to say thank you, not without it coming out awkwardly, and he didn't know what he could do for making Bokuto run out to the shops at the end of the day, especially when Keiji had been so adamant that he would be able to get it done himself. So he just hoped that by praising Bokuto, he would figure out that Keiji was incredibly thankful for what he had done. For Keiji, for his family.

Shiharu came in then, carrying with her a jug of barley tea; Keiko came in behind her with three glasses. "Yes, thank you Bokuto-kun it really did help." She put the jug down on the table, and Keiko clinked the glasses down too before returning to her seat on Bokuto's lap. "Do you want sauce on top of the omelette?" Shiharu asked.

Keiji looked to Keiko, who nodded excitedly. "Yes, yes! I want mama's!"

"Same thank you." Keiji replied. Shiharu smiled at him, Bokuto did too, although surely it was for a different reason. He poured out tea when Shiharu left, off to finalise their meals, but soon she was back and placing the meals down in front of them. "Thank you, I can clear up afterwards Shiharu-san, it's fine."

"Keiko will help too!"

Shiharu smiled, a hand making it's way through the mess on top of Keiji's head. "I'll see what the others are up to then and make sure the bath is free for you two later."

"Bath with onii-chan!" Keiko cheered. Bokuto laughed and Keiji blushed. Hopefully nobody else ever needed to find out that one of his sisters favourite things to do was bathe with her brother.

Keiji nudged his sister with his foot, taking care to avoid hitting Bokuto instead. "Itadakimasu." They called together, with Bokuto echoing shortly afterwards.

Before Bokuto cut into his food, Keiji noticed that his omelette had been decorated with an owl to match his namesake, it was cute. His and Keiko's just contained their family name with a heart written out delicately after the characters. Keiji smiled at the work, even as he saw Bokuto look at Keiko's plate in confusion before it became unreadable as she attacked it with a spoon and began to eat. Keiji ate his own with a _tad_ more delicacy.

Dinner was quiet. Keiji enjoyed listening to Keiko hum in delight at each mouthful, and Bokuto occasionally laughing at the mess she left behind on her face. Keiji laughed to himself, soft, quiet, when he saw Bokuto wipe at the sauce and rice on Keiko's face, only to make the mess worse.

When they had all finished eating, the three of them carried the dishes into the kitchen.

Keiji dragged a chair in front of the sink, and Keiko climbed onto it. "Pass them to me when I'm ready okay?" He instructed her. He set to work, washing things up one at a time. Keiko passed over something each time that Keiji set something into the drying rack. Bokuto watched for a few minutes before spying the tea towel hanging over the over and decided to drying everything - everything including what was already in the drying rack from the rest of his family's dinner earlier. There was no need for Bokuto to help, he was a guest, but Keiji had a feeling that if he pointed this out to him Bokuto would complain.

"I like this side of you." Bokuto said quietly. "I like the Akaashi who does chores at home and always makes sure everyone here is happy. Especially Keiko." Keiji hummed in acknowledgement, not quite knowing what to say to the words. "I like that you seem more relaxed here than at school, well apart from the first time I was over. You aren't as serious at home."

When Bokuto was being so nice, Keiji didn't have the heart to tell him that he was less serious at home because he was looking after actual children. Not looking after children who were actually older than him as was the case with the volleyball team.

Keiji looked over at Bokuto, he was drying up plates and seemed to be talking to the herb garden hanging out the window rather than Keiji.

"It kind of feels like this time is just for me, you know?"

Bokuto turned around to Keiji now with a smile on his face, a different one from the usual beaming grin he displayed when they were on the court together. Keiji felt like this was his own secret smile of Bokuto's, just for him.

Keiji placed the last glass in the rack for Bokuto and helped Keiko down off the chair. He was mostly doing this so that he wouldn't have to look at Bokuto. He could feel the heat in his cheeks and he didn't want to be caught blushing. Not by Bokuto. Keiji took his time with pulling out the plug in the sink, and then without the towel to dry his hands he shook them out in Bokuto's direction. "Don't say things like that." He said. Thinking of that small smile, and the urban legend regarding Bokuto's hair, and that in his spare time outside of school and volleyball he was in training to take over his family's shrine. How many people knew that? They were Keiji's own secrets to hold that had been shared with him.

"Play time!" Keiko cheered, digging her hand into the bubbles that Keiji had yet to clear from the sink and scooping them up towards Bokuto. They latched onto his shirt, and stayed there. Bokuto just laughed.

"See, so playful at home Akaashi."

He didn't look, but Keiji could hear the grin in his words. His usual playful tone. One that usually meant Keiji had to talk him out of doing something, but here, now, it was fine.

"It is not time to play Bokuto-san, it was simply a mishap."

Bokuto didn't listen; he flicked the tap back on to soak his hands under and then cupped water in them. Keiji knew where this was going.

"Bokuto-san." _Stop_. "Bokuto-san." _No_. "Bokuto-san." _Too much_.

Keiji ended up with warm water dripping down his hair, sliding down his face, finding a way under his clothes.

" _Bokuto-san_." Bokuto was reaching for more, and he really needed to not be. To stop.

Keiko gasped. "Onii-chan is angry at you!" And then she giggled.

"Really?" Bokuto halted, turned the tap off, and looked warily at Keiji. He just used the opportunity to sweep up the towel that Bokuto had been using to bend down and dry off Keiko's hands.

"He said your name three times, that mean's he's angry."

"Really! Are you angry Akaashi, I'm sorry, but you splashed me first!"

" _Bo-ku-to-san_."

"See." Keiko claimed.

"Wow, you weren't kidding." The both of them burst into laughter, and Keiji realised that he was somehow dealing with two five year olds.

"I'm sorry Akaashi!" It was hard to believe the apology when it was spoken through mouthfuls of chuckling. "It was just for fun, it's fun to see you have fun!"

" _Bokuto-san_." Keiji needed him to stop talking, now. He could feel his cheeks heating up again.

"I'm not saying that I don't like how you are at school. There's a time and place for everything and you like to be serious and organised at school, I get that. But when you're relaxed and having fun with your family here it feels more natural." Keiko's hands were dry now, and Keiji rolled the towel up, whipping it in Bokuto's direction, maybe this would get him to stop.

It didn't. "When you're like this you're really cute!"

"Bokuto-san!"

Bokuto only laughed at him again.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Koutarou sat at the side of the pool during gym class. It was midsummer, which for the last three years had always meant swimming, and for the last three years Koutarou had managed to get out of it by saying that he didn't know how to swim and that he was scared of the water. Well, he told the teachers that, he told his class that he didn't want to tire himself out for volleyball practice. To himself, the reason was that he didn't want to wash out the colour of his hair. He had once toyed with permanently dying his hair, and only stopped doing so once he realised that keeping up with the white regrowth that came through was a pain. How did one explain away that his hair grew in white when that was what he was trying to hide? The way he coloured it now, made it appear that his hair was growing in appropriately. Coloured in along the edges of his hair made it look like he had died it white, grey on some days when the colour seeped, and the black regrowth was what made him look lazy, when it was actually the opposite.

Colouring in the black too a lot of patience to do every day.

It was a hot day, and Koutarou was glad even just for dipping his feet in the pool; even if everyone else looked so much more content for playing in the water. Still, he was better off than those who weren't given pool time. Like the girls from class, who while the boys had the pool were stuck running the marathon - next week their allocation would switch, and Koutarou was looking forward to that even less. It was too hot to run that much, it would be torture.

He wasn't even in the pool, but he still smiled smugly up at those he could see through the windows overhead; smiled smugly at those who looked down in jealousy. Gym was _always_ better than being stuck in the classroom; although, if he was running the marathon, sitting inside might have been better then that. When he noticed Konoha frowning down at them, Koutarou on the side with Komi and Saru in the pool, he couldn't help but wave. Konaha held up two middle fingers back. Koutarou laughed and called out for Komi and Saru to wave back as well. All it did was push Konoha away from the window.

Koutarou felt lighter inside, happier. Being out by the pool was _so much_ better than being stuck inside.

He waved his feet through the water, kicking up splashes to anyone who came too close. He so wanted to nap out here in the sunshine, it seemed like it would be such a nice way to while away the hour they had out here. It wasn't worth thinking too much about though, he knew that if he fell asleep he would soon be drenched in water. The only thing that kept people from doing so now was the phone he kept very obviously at his side - they wouldn't dare to splash him with technology so close.

The only consolation was that it was the last session for the day, after this Koutarou would be free to do whatever tickled his fancy.

When they finally are allowed to leave, Koutarou doesn't even bother getting dressed. He goes inside to pick up his actual clothes from the change rooms, slings his shirt around his neck and pulls on his training shorts to save himself from needing to towel his calves dry in order to put his school slacks on.

In the school genkan he takes the indoor shoes that he has been carrying and switches them for his outdoor ones. He won't put them on now with his feet still wet, but after a few minutes in the sun he will be good to go.

A few aisles over, Koutarou can hear a group of people talking about going out for ice cream. He thinks he'd rather go for a drink, ice cream doesn't ever agree with him and always tends to melt over his fingers much quicker than he can eat it without causing a brain freeze. He manages to see the group as they leave, and he can spy Akaashi in amongst them. _Akaashi deserved to go out for ice cream_. Maybe instead of going home, Koutarou could take Keiko out for a drink. Then Akaashi could hang out with his friends for as long as he liked without having to worry about her afterwards.

New plan in mind, Koutarou heads north from the gate towards Keiko's school rather than towards the station with the rest of the crowd.

He's happy when he finds the gates to the grade school. He's heard the name of it, and knows the general whereabouts of where it is, but he had never been before. Koutarou is glad that he made it. He is less glad when he hears crying as he gets closer to the gates, and he prays to all the gods he knows that it isn't anyone he knows crying.

It is though, of course it is. It would be a rare day for things to go his way.

Koutarou sprints the last little bit to the gate, and from there he sees Keiko on the ground, crying. Another girl is standing over her with her hands on her hips. To Koutarou, it looks an awful lot like Keiko is getting bullied. "Stupid Keiko!" He can hear the girl yelling. "You can't just bring your brother, it's family day, everyone has to come."

He expects Keiko to say something in return, but instead she just wails louder. "Onii-chan!" He wishes now that he had not been here to see this, or that he had thought of going out for drinks earlier and maybe invited Akaashi so that _he_ could stop Keiko from crying. So that _Akaashi_ would be here to answer the call of his younger sister, because her tears make Koutarou want to cry. He's an only child, he was not cut out for this.

"Why are you crying? The teacher just said to bring in your parents." The girl talks over Keiko's increasingly louder wails, and Koutarou really wants to cry along with her. He doesn't know what for, but he's a sympathetic crier, he can't handle it when people are crying. Especially not when it's a cute little girl who is related to one of his good friends and had always seemed _so happy_ when Koutarou went over to her house.

"Hey, hey, hey! Keiko it's time to go home!" He sees Keiko whirl around at his call. Her face is splotched with red, tear tracks climb down her face and water pools in the corners of her eyes. Really, how did anyone deal with this? "And we're gonna go get a nice cold drink on the way home too!" That would make her happy right? And she could stop crying and be happy again when they got to her house so that nobody had to think that it was _Koutarou_ who had made her cry.

"Onii-san!" Keiko wails again at seeing him, but Koutarou thinks that this wailing is happier, that this means that she is happy to see him. She stands up from where she had been holed up on the floor and is soon grabbing at his shorts. Koutarou will take that as a yes, to being happy to see him and also maybe to going to get a drink. He hopes that it's okay, he's never actually picked Keiko up from school before apart from the first time when he had accidentally stumbled upon her.

He should probably call Akaashi to let him know.

He doesn't have Akaashi's number.

"Keiko!" He cheers her name and she lets out a wet smile, eyes crinkling and causing more tears to fall, but no new ones form in their place. "Do you want an orange juice?" He pats her on the head, and also pushes his phone onto her. "Let someone know that I'm picking you up."

"I wanna drink coffee!" She says, pushing at buttons on his phone. Hopefully that means she knows what she's doing.

"Really?"

Koutarou doesn't understand how anyone can drink coffee. He can't stand the taste himself, far too bitter. He keeps taking sips every so often because there has to be something about it that keeps other people drinking it, but so far he has yet to be enlightened.

Keiko hands his phone back, and Koutarou hopes that this means nobody will think that she's been kidnapped.

"Wait just a minute!"

Koutarou stalls from where he had been about to leave with Keiko in hand; he had totally forgotten about the other girl there. He crouches down in front of her to be at eye level - he's seen Akaashi do this with his siblings so he hopes it helps with _something_.

"Sorry about that, did you need Keiko for something?"

The girl is staring at him, and not in a nice way. Although, Koutarou has come to realise that he has walked into the grade school in volleyball shorts, converse, and his school shirt only half buttoned. He should probably have at least done his shirt up properly before he got to the school.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Right, it was probably weird for someone that she thought was a stranger to walk away with her friend. At least, _he thought they were friends_ , despite the fact that she had been making Keiko cry when he had arrived.

Instead of answering himself, Keiko jumped to place her head over his shoulder and answered for him. "He's my onii-san!" Koutarou can't help but note how happy he feels to hear Keiko say that about him.

"Keiko, you shut up. I know this isn't Kei-nii!"

Keiko shrinks back to hide behind him instead. Koutarou isn't sure why, he is very obviously not _Kei-nii_ , and it's nice of this girl to be looking out for her friend. He thinks it's cute - but he's not sure if he finds her name for Akaashi cutest, or the way she's trying to protect her friend. It's a thought for another time.

Koutarou opts for a smile. "What's your name?"

She is still glaring, but it seems to be aimed over his shoulder rather than at him, directed towards Keiko. "Okuyama Yuuna."

"Yuuna-chan." He echoes. "What a cute name for a cute girl." She's back to glaring, and Koutarou thinks that it's probably about time for him to introduce himself. "I'm Bokuto Koutarou, I'm friends with _Kei-nii_." He has the brief thought afterwards, that Akaashi would hit him if he ever caught Bokuto calling him that. Hopefully, he never needs to find out.

"Yuuna-chan!" A call comes from behind them, and this time Koutarou is glared at by what appears to be Yuuna's mother. _Yes_ , he definitely should have buttoned up his shirt before getting to the school.

She is still glaring at him, but she addresses her questions to Yuuna. "Why is Keiko-chan crying?" Then to Bokuto. "What are you doing to these girls?"

As soon as _these girls_ were gone, Koutarou was going to button up his shirt. Even if he's pretty sure that _at least_ one of the glances his way had been appreciative.

"Keiko was crying because the teacher told her she needed to bring her parents to school for the festival."

The lady that Koutarou definitely suspects to be Okuyama-san now has less of a glare on her face. Possibly because now she knows that the _half dressed high schooler_ at the _grade school_ wasn't the reason for Keiko being in tears.

"I see." She seems somewhat sorrowful.

"So I was going to take her out for orange juice to make her feel better." Koutarou adds to the story.

"Onii-san, I told you I want coffee!"

"Yes, yes." He waves off Keiko's pleas.

"Oh, are you a friend of Keiji-kun's?"

"Yes." Koutarou is glad that they all seem to be on the same page now.

"I keep telling you Yuuna-chan, stop making Keiko-chan cry. If she only wants to bring Keiji-kun to school that's her choice." She tugs Yuuna along by the hand then, walking back to the school gates. At the last second she shoot's back an apologetic look towards Koutarou. "Sorry, she doesn't understand that Keiko-chan thinks of Keiji-kun as her parents. Still, please invite the Matsunaga's to see if they want to come, not as family." She smiles at him before turning back around, and then they are gone.

Koutarou is simply left confused. He's dragged out of the gates himself by Keiko's hand, and once he realises he shakes her off to button up his shirt. He's received enough glares for one afternoon. He's still confused though.

Who on earth were the Matsunaga's?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keiji arrived home from grocery shopping laden with bags and soaked through with sweat. Why did summer have to get so hot?

He packs the groceries away in the kitchen, and afterwards thinks about putting his uniform in to wash. There's no way he's going to wear it again straight away in the condition it is now, even airing it out won't get the scent and marks of sweat from his afternoon chores off of it. Decision made, he pulls of his uniform and sets it in the machine, then heads upstairs to get changed. He jumps at the doorway, startled to find Bokuto sitting down at the table in his room. Keiko is asleep next to him with her head in his lap and a book in her arms. Keiji was sure that Shiharu was meant to pick her up from school today, so he hopes that she knows Keiko is home already.

"Bokuto-san?" Bokuto turns to look at him with his eyes wide.

"Akaashi!" Keiji flicks an eye down to where Keiko is napping. Bokuto glances down too, and says again "Akaashi" in a much quieter voice, as if Keiji hadn't been able to hear him the first time.

"Why are you here and why is Keiko with you?" He sounds rude, he knows he does. But Keiji is half naked and had expected to be home alone, and his mother may or may not currently believe that Keiko has been kidnapped.

He searches for a top to put on as Bokuto goes into a story about his afternoon.

"So that's why you brought Keiko home from school?" Keiji is sitting down with them now, stroking his hand through his sisters hair. He's a lot more relaxed now that he knows that Shiharu knows that Keiko is home safe. Thank the gods for Keiko being far smarter at five than Keiji ever remembered himself being.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"And the book Keiko has?"

Bokuto looks at him wide eyed, clear in the knowledge that Keiji has caught him spoiling Keiko, again. "We stopped by the book store on the way home and she wanted it."

"Thanks I guess." Keiko loves books, and Keiji is happy that she will have a new one to read now. "I can pay you back for it."

"No, no, no!" Bokuto catches himself after his statement, catches himself, takes a deep breath, and then continues more quietly. "Not at all, she still seemed upset and this made her happy." So happy that she was sleeping with it. Keiji smiled, the top bunk of her bed had already become littered with gifts from Bokuto. All for Keiko. Charms from the shrine, gatchapon toys. One day he had shown up with a bundle of hand picked flowers for her, and Keiji had only just intervened in time to keep her from taking those up to her bed as well. They sat in a glass of water, wilting away on the desk now. He didn't mind though, he didn't have the ability to spoil Keiko except for with his time, and he didn't want his parents doing it. They had enough children to look after. So having Bokuto spoil her was charming in a way.

"At least having Keiko home means that there is one less thing for Shiharu-san to worry about."

"I was helpful right!"

"You were." Keiji says, and watches happily as a proud smile lays itself out over Bokuto's face.

"What about you Akaashi, how was ice cream?"

Keiji can feel the frown settle onto his face as soon as the question had been asked. Takei had been pestering him all day to go and get ice cream with him after school along with some of the girls in their class, but he wasn't sure how Bokuto could know that.

"Why would I do that? I went to get groceries this afternoon because the others were busy today. I didn't have time to go out and play with Takei."

He smiles down at Keiko, he knows how it sounds, but he doesn't mind. Keeping his family together with Keiko is the most important thing at the moment. He'll pass up all the ice cream and karaoke there is to make sure that she's happy, and that his whole family is happy.

"You know, it's strange for Keiko to get this attached to someone." Keiji is still smiling down at where she is dozing off in Bokuto's lap. "You're a big help just by coming over. She even calls you _onii-san_."

He's brought his own mood down. It's just that Keiko had still been calling Shiharu and Seiji by their names until her last birthday. Probably his own fault, as that was what he called them. To make them happy though, he tried, and he wanted Keiko to continue calling them mum and dad as well. So it's strange to hear her when she calls out to Bokuto. Strange, but welcome. As if she is welcoming Bokuto into the family too. Keiji doesn't know how to feel about that thought.

He's just happy that Keiko doesn't feel like she is missing out on anything. At least not until something like inviting parents to the school festival came up. Keiko always cried then, cried because she still thought that she only had Keiji. He let out a deep breath, forcing his thoughts out with it. There was no point in thinking about this now.

"By the way, where's my drink?"

Bokuto gasped, looked around the room as if one would magically appear in front of him, and then held out his own. "Here."

"Thank you." Keiji took a sip from the straw, and then handed it straight back. "What is this? It's so sweet." He could feel the way his face twisted at the taste lingering on his tongue.

Bokuto only frowned at the drink in his hand, as if not understanding how anything could possibly be too sweet. "It's white chocolate and strawberry."

"Okay then, so actually just a cup of sugar. I get it now." Keiji couldn't help the teasing pull of his lips.

Bokuto looked like he was going to shout back and defend his drink, but instead it looked like he had spotted Keiji's smile.

"Anytime you need, or _when you want_ to do something after school Akaashi, just let me know and I can pick Keiko up from school."

Keiji's smile this time was one of gratitude, he stopped stroking at Keiko's hair. "Thank you." He said it quietly, but he knew that Bokuto had heard.

He didn't even notice his hand resting on Bokuto's thigh as they settled into the silence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koutarou accompanied Akaashi to the festival at Keiko's school. The girl in question was very excited and told Koutarou that he had been rostered on to work with her brother in the afternoon. He was reminded of the _fight_ that he had seen between Keiko and Yuuna after school earlier, and wondered if his being rostered on was where Keiko's parents were meant to be working. He hoped that he wasn't stealing their place in helping Keiko with the festival.

He walked around with both Akaashi and Keiko through the festival in the morning. They ate food at the stalls, and Keiko walked between them holding onto both of their hands when they braved the haunted house. Koutarou laughed to see Akaashi acting scared in front of Keiko so that she could valiantly protect him from the ghosts. And it crossed his mind again, wondering why Akaashi was so much less playful when it came to playing with everyone in the team. Koutarou smiled widely at Keiko protecting Akaashi, wide enough to feel the pull in his cheeks - because the entire time that they had been walking through she had held on so much tighter to his own hand. She must have been scared herself, but her act was cute.

At one point Koutarou noticed Akaashi's parents walking around the festival, as well as the rest of his family. He waved at them, and Seiji waved back, but that was it. They didn't join up, and when Akaashi saw them he herded Koutarou and Keiko off in the opposite direction to a game of balloon darts.

"Matsunaga?" They had finally come to Keiko's classroom to take over the stall from some other parents.

"Akaashi." Akaashi replied.

"Right, of course. Sorry." She actually really did look sorry. Koutarou had no idea what for. "Okuyama-san said they would be a bit late, but are you okay to take over?"

"Sure thing, leave it to us." Akaashi swapped aprons with her, and Koutarou went to go put one on himself. Afterwards they both went to stand behind the makeshift counter.

Keiko's class had decided on what was essentially a bake sale. Koutarou recognised the cookies that he had helped Akaashi and Keiko make on one of the shelves, surrounded by other things that looked like they had been made with a lot more parental supervision. The work was easy, all they had to do was supervise Keiko as she took money for the trays of baking that parents and their children walked through with, picking out the things they liked.

They didn't serve anyone before Yuuna showed up with both of her parents. Announcing herself with a shout of "I told you Kei-nii didn't count!" before being silenced by her parents.

Off to the side Koutarou heard Yuuna's mother asking Akaashi if his parents were at the festival. "Yes," he replied. "The whole family is. Shiharu-san said they would come by to see Keiko working."

"That's good." She smiled and put a hand on Akaashi's shoulder. "I'll try to keep Yuuna out of the way when they come."

"Don't worry about it. I told Shiharu-san when we were getting off, so I'm hoping she took the hint to come by around then." Koutarou held his breath when Akaashi looked over to him then, shocked because he had been caught watching, and listening. "I told Shiharu-san that Keiko was upset about it the other day." So that was why he had looked over, because it had been Koutarou who had let Akaashi know what Keiko was upset about the other day. "And that it would probably be for the best if Keiko didn't have to work again after they came. Especially working with Yuuna-chan."

"I'm so sorry Keiji-kun, I know she means well, but she just doesn't understand. One day she will and then hopefully she will be a better friend for Keiko-chan."

Koutarou watched as Akaashi smiled fondly over to where Keiko - and as far as Koutarou thought - her best friend were laughing together behind the teachers desk.

"She's fine." Akaashi said, going back to talking to Yuuna's mum. "Perhaps she'll help Keiko call them her parents more often, I know they'd like that. I'd like that too." Koutarou knew that he shouldn't be listening, but it was hard not too. Even if he was confused by the conversation. "I'm sure they would have been honoured if they had been asked to help out, not that I mind doing the work."

Yuuna's mother laughed then, Akaashi followed with something smaller afterwards. Then with a pat on the back Akaashi headed back towards Koutarou, where they stood to watch over the stall. There wasn't much for them to do with both of Yuuna's parents helping out too.

After a couple of hours, Akaashi's parents did finally come into the classroom with everyone else, and they all bought something from Keiko's shop. Koutarou got to see Akaashi smile as he carried the twins around so they could pick out what they wanted. Shiharu and Seiji were talking to Yuuna's parents in whispers, not loud enough for him to hear this time, but before he could sneak closer to eavesdrop - he knew he shouldn't, but the temptation was too much - he instead managed to interrupt what look to be a fight between Kanata and Yuudai over the last apple pie.

Right as they were starting to get ready to leave, Koutarou saw Yuuna say something to Keiko. He would have passed it off, something just at the corner of his eye, except that it had made Keiko start crying. Koutarou didn't even have time to move to try and cheer her up again; something he would apparently need to get better at if Keiko crying was a regular thing. Akaashi was there in an instant, picked Keiko up in his arms, whispered something to Shiharu and then left. Taking Keiko with him and leaving Koutarou with the rest of his family. He wasn't sure if he should follow Akaashi or wait with the others, he had been to their house enough times for it not to feel too awkward, but still, Akaashi had always been with him.

Was Akaashi going to come back? He had still had his apron on.

Koutarou handed over his apron to another set of parents who had waltzed in with a young boy, and then Shiharu ushered him out along with the rest of the family. There was a tug on his shorts, and then he also somehow ended up with Akane in his arms, chewing on a cupcake. Yuuna and her parents left the room with them all as well. Koutarou felt like he was walking around with half the festival in tow as they walked though the corridors with the trail of people.

Akaashi was waiting for them at the school gates. Koutarou made to call out to him, but Seiji laid a hand on his shoulder, and he stopped before he could even take a breath in to shout. "I think Keiko has cried herself to sleep." On closer inspection, she had. Much like the other day when she had cried and then fallen asleep as soon as they had gotten home. Would she have fallen asleep like this if Koutarou had carried her home? Would she have preferred to be carried home? Would she have preferred to be carried home sleeping?

He was insanely curious as to what Yuuna had said to her to upset her so much that Akaashi had simply carried her out of the classroom rather than trying to calm her down. Akaashi who never let Koutarou run away when _he_ was upset. Akaashi who was in fact still wearing the apron from helping out.

Yuuna was pushed forward by her parents, and ushered a quiet apology to Akaashi. He smiled weakly at the gesture, and Koutarou could see that his eyes were shining. Unshed tears. _No_ , Akaashi couldn't cry. Koutarou felt upset enough that Keiko had been crying, if Akaashi cried then Koutarou absolutely would be too, and really all he wanted was to make sure that neither of them cried, that hopefully neither of them would again. How could he do that if he was crying too? They would all just end up as a big pile of tears and nobody would end up happy.

"Thank you." Akaashi said quietly, in reply to Yuuna. "It's fine." To Koutarou, it didn't look fine at all. Akaashi was far too polite for his own good, but Koutarou guessed that it would also be a bit much to hold a grudge against a five year old.

"Apologies again, Matsunaga-san." He heard Yuuna's mum say to Shiharu.

"It's fine, she'll understand one day. Until then, Keiko will always have her brother."

Koutarou watched as Akaashi turned away and held his head lower over his sisters sleeping face. Was he actually crying now?

"We'll see you next time then, Matsunaga-san." Yuuna's parents bowed in farewell and headed back towards the festival. Akaashi's family didn't go back inside, instead they followed after Akaashi who had already started down the path in the direction of their home.

Koutarou was quiet on the walk, thinking only about how such a pleasant afternoon had suddenly brought two of what he now considered his closest friends to tears. He didn't understand. Perhaps he, like Yuuna, had been doing things to make Akaashi upset and had never noticed.

One thing he had definitely noticed though, "Shiharu-san, why did they call you Matsunaga?"

Koutarou saw Akaashi pick his head up and look back at them quickly. Even from the distance he could pick out the red on Akaashi's face, he had been crying. Next to him though, Shiharu and Seiji had simply stopped walking, and all the children were looking at him like he had done something stupid, said something stupid.

"Keiji hasn't told you?"

"Told me what?"

Nobody answered him, they all just started walking after Akaashi again, who unlike the others had never stopped. Koutarou was stalled for a moment, wondering what had just happened, what he had said? This was him being like Yuuna, he had said something upsetting without knowing it.

There was nothing he could do about it for now, he simply chased after them.


	4. Chapter 4

Akaashi kept his distance from him after the festival, although Keiko still seemed happy to see Koutarou when he went to visit the next time they didn't have practice.

When the weekend arrived, Koutarou visited again, making the journey over with a platter of various fish that the shrine had been gifted over the week. His father had been so happy to hear that he was going to a friends house and could take most of it with him. Koutarou agreed, he didn't understand why they were given so much seafood in a week when everyone knew that there were only three of them at home. There was only so much that they could eat.

Shiharu opened the door for him when he knocked, with Keiko at her side.

"Onii-san!" Keiko cheered, and Koutarou felt the smile pull onto his face automatically.

"It's nice to see you, come on in." Shiharu said.

"Thanks!" Koutarou held out the box he was carrying as an offering. It was only the morning, so unless they still hadn't had breakfast, it would need to be refrigerated before too long.

"Oh, you brought food again. Thank you very much." Shiharu waited for Koutarou to change into slippers, and then led him into the house, Keiko switched from holding Shiharu's hand to slipping her small fingers between his.

The first thing that Koutarou noticed about the house was how quiet it was. Were they the only ones home?

"Keiji is out shopping with the others, but I hope you'll stay until they come back."

It was weird being at Akaashi's house while he wasn't home. "No, it's fine. I'll go home son." Especially when they hadn't talked much lately.

"Onii-san, don't go!" Keiko threw herself behind Koutarou, pushing him further into the house and then clinging onto the bottom of his shirt. Shiharu smiled fondly at the action.

"You can go play upstairs, they'll be back soon."

Koutarou nodded, and Keiko took his hands once more to lead him up to the room she shared with Akaashi.

"You've really helped a lot lately, thank you so much. Again."

"It's nothing special."

"No, it's good for Keiji." He didn't believe the words.

Shiharu left them then, and Koutarou was silent. He didn't know how anything he did was good for Akaashi, the awkwardness that had sprung between them over the last week.

Once they were in the bedroom, Keiko ran to pull out a book for them to read. Koutarou had to pause for a moment, amazed at the state of the room. Clothes were strewn everywhere, the blankets from the top bunk were hanging down over the rails, toys were scattered across the floor, and two of the desk drawers were hanging open. If this was how the room usually was, he needed to tell Akaashi that he didn't need to clean it up every time he came over. _He_ didn't care about the mess, and it looked like it took a lot of effort to keep neat.

Koutarou tried not to think about the room in this state, still looking neater than his, even though it had been a five year old who created the mess.

It wasn't long at all before Shiharu came up, bringing with her snacks and some tea. With Keiko, Koutarou went through them quickly, and when they had just finished he heard noise from downstairs. He was currently in the middle of colouring in a picture with Keiko in his lap, but should he go down and greet them? He could pick out Shiharu's voice downstairs, and then Akaashi's responding to her, even though he couldn't hear the words. Then there was the distinct sound of someone coming upstairs.

"Bokuto-san." His name was called out before the door was even fully opened, and there Akaashi stood, surveying the bedroom. Koutarou could see the crinkle between his eyes, Akaashi cringing slightly as he saw the mess that covered the room. Something in his eyes flashed then, and Akaashi ran over to slam the desk drawers shut. He looked over at Keiko then, eyes skirting the table to see what was in front of them, and then finding whatever it was that he had been looking for he sat down to join them.

"Akaashi! If you're worried about the mess, you don't need to be. My room is way worse, all the time!"

Akaashi looked at him then, looking into his eyes for the first time in so long, and quirked an eyebrow. "Thank you, Bokuto-san, but that in itself is worrying."

He didn't say anything else. Akaashi sat opposite them for a while, fidgeting with his hands. Keiko took matter upon herself and pushed over a book for Akaashi to work on. "You need to do the trees." Akaashi reached for the pens and did as instructed.

It was quiet, and Koutarou wasn't too great at distinguishing these things, but it felt like an uncomfortable one. He could sense Akaashi watching him occasionally while they worked, but every time he tried to catch his eye, Akaashi would turn away again. He wanted it to stop. He wanted whatever this weirdness was that had come between them to go away. How had Koutarou managed to fool himself into thinking that he was getting closer to Akaashi when something like this happened? When suddenly Akaashi didn't even want to look at him.

Shiharu came up again in time, knocking on the door before she came in to pass them some lunch. Koutarou hadn't even realised how much time had passed. Keiko moved from his lap to Akaashi's after they ate, curling up there like a cat to sleep. Akaashi started on homework that he had dragged out from somewhere, and Koutarou paused in the colouring that he had been doing with Keiko most of the morning.

"You've been acting strange lately Akaashi."

He hadn't meant to blurt it out, had been hoping to be able to convey his thoughts with some form of delicacy. Really though, subtlety wasn't his strong point, so there was no purpose in beating around the bush.

Akaashi dropped the pen from his right hand, both hands now working slowly through his sisters hair. It was easy with the scene in front of him, to replace Keiko with the image of a cat. A cat that Akaashi appeared to be petting for comfort.

"Really?" Akaashi was quiet, and still not looking at him. He spoke as if implying that Koutarou had been seeing things, imagining the distance he had felt between them, or at least tried to play it off that way. He was having none of it.

"Yes." He spoke forcefully, trying to keep his voice low so as not to wake Keiko up. He couldn't predict how the conversation would go, but Koutarou thought that the thing that would most upset Akaashi was if he woke Keiko up. "On Monday you handed in your history assignment instead of your permission slip for training camp." Akaashi said nothing, remained silent. "The other day you kept interrupting receives, which meant the whole play was messed up because you couldn't set." Akaashi was starting to look sad, his head was hanging low and his hands had stopped moving altogether. He just had his arms wrapped around Keiko, hands clasped together in her lap. "You haven't been talking to me." The finishing blow. "It might have just been me thinking too much, but I thought that I was worth more than that, I thought we were closer than that. I'm here for you Akaashi, I want to be, but I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong."

That was all he had to say.

Koutarou picked up a pen again and opened another of Keiko's books to colour in while he waited. Then again, waiting might also be waiting for Akaashi to kick him out and tell him not to come again. Hopefully Akaashi wouldn't do that, but if he did, would he still be able to see Keiko? He had always wanted a younger sibling, and now he ... kind of had one, had gotten to experience having a big family, and he loved it. If Akaashi really hated him though, would they all hate him too?

If so, he probably should have just stayed quiet.

"I thought you knew already."

Lost in his mind, Koutarou almost missed Akaashi's quiet whisper of words. He had a sad smile on his face, and had one hand lazily stroking over Keiko's face, down her cheeks.

"To be honest Akaashi, I don't know a lot of anything."

The shadow of a laugh passed his lips, and Koutarou felt his heart soar. Surely, _surely_ this meant that Akaashi wasn't about to kick him out of his house and out of his life.

"Keiko was- Keiko was crying..." He seemed to be struggling to get the words out, and Koutarou so wanted to tell him that it didn't matter, that he didn't need to worry - but he also had a feeling that if it wasn't said, now, then it would just get harder to say over time. The conversation would be put off indefinitely, it would never happen, and he really _did_ want to know. "I heard you talking to them, when we left." Akaashi lifted his head, for the first time now, to look at him, since Koutarou had breached the silence. "So I thought you knew already."

"I don't know shit." He said it bluntly, quickly, before he had time to think. As soon as the words had left his mouth he threw a hand up to cover it and sent a guilty look towards Keiko. He didn't want her to hear bad words. It got a deep laugh out of Akaashi though, and the deep breaths coming from Keiko indicated that she was still asleep, she hadn't heard, Koutarou hadn't corrupted her.

"Did my parents ever introduce themselves to you?"

It was a strange question, but Koutarou realised that in the context of what they were talking about, it was clearly an important question. So he took the time to think.

The first time that he had come over, he had recognised Akaashi instantly. It had helped that he had _Akaashi Keiko_ 's name in his head from meeting her earlier though, and she had the same face as her brother, although softer in parts. He had seen Akaashi's family, waved that first time, talked to them at later times when he came over, but had he been introduced?

He didn't think so.

Koutarou was sure that he only knew everyone's names because he had heard Akaashi, Keiko, or someone else use them.

"Maybe...?" He was actually pretty sure that the answer was no, but if Akaashi knew that they had been introduced, then he didn't want to seem too rude. "But I don't really remember." Oh well, there goes being rude. _Hey, yeah, I totally forgot that your parents introduced themselves to me, my bad_. Maybe they could laugh about it another day when Akaashi didn't look close to tears.

_Why did Akaashi look close to tears_?

"Their names are Matsunaga Seiji and Matsunaga Shiharu."

_Matsunaga_. Koutarou had heard that name a lot. He had heard Akaashi called that name by people at Keiko's school. Parents at the festival had called them Matsunaga. Matsunaga was the name Koutarou had been confused by when Yuuna's mother had said goodbye to them after the festival.

Akaashi's name _was not_ Matsunaga.

"Why do your parents have a different name from you?" They were _Akaashi Keiji_ , _Akaashi Keiko_. These names he definitely knew. Then, he thought about his question, and came to the crippling realisation that the answer was probably really obvious. He had also poised his question right as Shiharu came upstairs again, quietly, to take their plates back from lunch.

Akaashi looked up at her when she came in, and the look shared between them made Koutarou feel like he was missing out on some form of telepathic conversation. Instead of taking the plates and leaving again, she hovered over Akaashi, then picked up Keiko and tucked her into Akaashi's bed. Koutarou watched as she stroked through her hair, twice, the same way that Akaashi had been carding his hands through her hair earlier.

He turned his eyes back to Akaashi, who was watching Shiharu, or was it Keiko? Koutarou couldn't really tell, just kept his eyes on Akaashi's, he wanted to know what was wrong. Akaashi's gaze shifted, so it must have been Shiharu that he was looking at, she walked back over behind Akaashi, and sat at his desk. She put a hand to Akaashi's back, and opened up the bottom drawer of the desk - the same drawer that Akaashi had slammed shut when he had first come into the room and seen Koutarou here this morning.

Shiharu pulled out a box from the drawer, and placed in down in the centre of the table, right between he and Akaashi. Koutarou was definitely intrigued. It was an old _ASICS_ shoe box, falling apart at all corners and the lid not even sitting properly on top.

"We took Keiji and Keiko in four years ago. Keiji was old enough to decide that he wanted to keep his name."

He snapped his head from the box to look up at Shiharu. Her hand was now stroking through Akaashi's hair in a pattern that Koutarou was now very familiar with. Akaashi had tears building up in his eyes, threatening to snake their way down his face.

Koutarou didn't know what to say.

Akaashi looked like he wasn't even able to speak; he just reclined his head back into Shiharu's touch.

"They were going to be split after the accident. They didn't have any relatives, and more than a few people are interested in adopting young children, not so much for older ones though." Even though Shiharu was talking, Koutarou couldn't take his eyes off of Akaashi. He seemed to think nothing of Shiharu talking as if he wasn't there. "Seiji and I are pretty well known in the system. I came through it and wanted to help in my own way when I could." At the edge of his vision Koutarou could see Shiharu smiling at Keiji.

"Come on Keiji, let's go make some tea." Akaashi nodded at her, and stood up. Was this Koutarou's cue to leave?

"I'll be back in a bit."

Akaashi's voice was choked, and that more than seeing him cry made Koutarou want to sink into himself too. Akaashi didn't get emotional like this, not the Akaashi that he knew, the Akaashi that led the team when Koutarou was the one lost in his own emotions and rendered useless. He couldn't give in to himself though, not when Akaashi needed him to be the strong one for once.

At least he knew that he wasn't expected to leave. He could stay.

They left, and he sat in silence, staring at the box on the table. What was he supposed to do? He wanted so badly to know what was inside. Shiharu had placed it on the table, but Akaashi hadn't really given him permission to look. Would it be bad if he did? It would probably be bad if he did.

He was roused from his thoughts when a weight made itself known in his lap. "Onii-san, where's onii-chan?" Keiko stifled a yawn behind her hands.

"He went down to make us some more tea."

Keiko nodded at his explanation, and then looked around the room. She saw Akaashi's homework on the table, and Koutarou's colouring in, and then she saw the box on the table and dragged it towards the both of them.

"Did onii-chan show you?" Koutarou shook his head. "Do you want me to show you?" He was conflicted, for all of a few seconds. This was a shared room though, so nobody could _really_ get angry about it if _Keiko_ was the one who showed him.

He didn't have to say anything. Keiko took the lid off the box, and the first thing that caught his eyes was a polaroid camera sitting in the side of the box. Pale yellow. Koutarou didn't even know that Akaashi was into photography, or even taking pictures in general. Akaashi didn't have a phone to take pictures on, so surely he should have seen this camera before now if it really was one of Akaashi's hobbies.

Keiko was pulling out some photos from inside the box now. And with the shock of seeing the polaroid camera in there gone, Koutarou could see that the box was full of photos, full of polaroids that he was pretty sure he could safely assume were from the camera.

Keiko held them out for him to look at, and babbled a story about each one.

They were mostly of her. A picture of Keiko and Akaashi at the pool, one of Keiko on what she said was her first day of school. A picture of them together with Keiko on Akaashi's shoulders, at hatsumode according to Keiko. A picture of Keiko in a mask, a picture of Keiko pulling cookies from the oven. A picture of Keiko and Akaashi cooking dinner together.

As every single picture featured Keiko, so it was a nice surprise to see the ones where Akaashi made a cameo. Koutarou had to think that it was Akaashi taking all the photos, and maybe he didn't like other people touching his camera.

Keiko put the pile that she had been showing him down, and pulled out some more.

She featured prominently again in this set, but it also included some pictures that held the rest of the family. All of them at a beach, at a shrine. What looked like Keiko's first _shichi-go-san_. A photo taken at Christmas. Akaashi wasn't in any of these pictures, clearly choosing to take the photo rather than be in it. Even Koutarou could tell though, all the pictures in this set looked to be filled with love. Most of them seemed candid, with only a few posed pictures thrown in here and there. It showed how much fun they seemed to have when they were all together, and Koutarou was reminded of the brief period of time at the festival when they had all been buying treats before things went downhill.

Another set of photos, filled with a much younger Akaashi, carrying around a baby Keiko. There were no other family members in these pictures, just the two of them, and they both seemed so lonely.

"These are my favourite!" Keiko pulled out photos from the bottom of the box. Kept in an envelope that Koutarou recognised - photos developed from film. These must have been old photos. Keiko wasn't in any of these, so he didn't really understand why they were her favourite.

And then he did.

Akaashi smiling with a man who had his hair and a woman who had his smile. Photos just of the three of them, and finally, some that were just Akaashi. From just the one envelope, they seemed to span a variety of years. Akaashi as a baby. Three separate appearances of Akaashi at _shichi-go-san_. Akaashi playing volleyball. Akaashi with a cast on his wrist, filled with doodles and scribbles from what must have been his friends. Akaashi in what looked to be his middle school uniform.

Or maybe Keiko's favourites were the next ones. A picture of the family of three, all with a hand towards the stomach of what was obviously Akaashi's mum. A picture of the same pose, but with Akaashi-san very obviously pregnant in the photo. A third picture, of the same man with Akaashi's hair and the woman with his smile, Akaashi's parents, around a young Akaashi with a plump baby girl in his lap, all of them smiling wide for the camera.

It was easy for Koutarou to think of these photos as being Keiko's favourites. Seeing people love her, before she was even fully in the world.

They were nice photos, but they made him feel sad. Bittersweet memories.

This was why Keiko cried when she was told to bring her parents to school. This was why Keiko cried, because Yuuna didn't understand that their parents weren't their parents. This is why _Akaashi_ had cried last weekend, because Keiko had cried, because their parents weren't there.

Keiko was enraptured with the pictures, and it made a lot more sense now as to why the box was falling apart. Koutarou smiled, nodding at each of the pictures she handed him now as she picked out her absolute favourites, telling him the stories behind all of them.

Akaashi came back, bringing with him the smell of fresh baking and bearing a plate of cookies. Koutarou hadn't even realised that he had been gone that long - time was floating away from him today. Akaashi looked better though, he no longer looked on the verge of crying, and if he didn't know better, Koutarou wouldn't even know that he had been crying. His face just looked fresher. As though whatever had been bothering him was now off of his shoulders, out of his mind, gone.

"Picture! Picture!"

Akaashi smiled at his sister, and pulled the camera out. He aimed it quickly at Keiko, sitting in Koutarou's lap, and then before Koutarou could even think to smile the picture had been taken, the flash momentarily blinding him.

"I wasn't ready!" He pouted, he couldn't help it. He hadn't been able to make sure that his hair looked okay or anything. "Take another one when I'm ready!"

Akaashi frowned at him, pulling out the picture that he had taken from the front of the camera. "No, that was the point."

"But Akaashi, my hair!" Koutarou wailed. "I didn't even do my hair this morning, it's not picture ready."

"There's nothing wrong with your hair." Koutarou pouted further. "You came over on the train for twenty minutes with your hair like that."

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

"You've been here for hours with your hair like that."

Koutarou reached out and snatched the photo from Akaashi's hands. He would look at it first, and then if it was bad, nobody needed to ever know that it existed. So far only the outline of the picture had developed.

He shook it in his hand.

"You know, you're not actually supposed to do that."

He stopped shaking it, and looked at the picture. "What do you mean? That's what they do in the movies."

Akaashi only shrugged, and then finally sat down at the table with them again, and went to work putting the pictures away. First the oldest ones, then the lonely ones, then the family ones, then the ones full of Keiko. Koutarou thought the way Akaashi let his fingers drape over the gloss of the photos was almost like a loving caress, making sure that they were all aligned and still intact before he boxed them up again. Keiko went back to colouring as soon as the pictures were away.

Akaashi held his hand out, and Koutarou looked at it for a second before putting his hand in it, and clasping his fingers around Akaashi's. "You know, I'm kind of glad that Shiharu isn't your mum." Akaashi frowned. "She looks way too young to be your mum, if _my mum_ ever saw her I think she'd cry."

"Shiharu-san is thirty."

"Okay well my mum is like ten years older, so I guess I can tell her that so she won't cry."

"Bokuto-san."

He looked up into Akaashi's eyes, hummed to show that Akaashi had his attention. Akaashi didn't continue, didn't look back, he was staring down at where their hands were joined.

"As much fun as this is," he squeezed Bokuto's hand with his. "I was actually trying to get the picture back."

Koutarou felt his heart thump, just twice, extra hard against his ribs.

"Oh." That was embarrassing, why had he picked up Akaashi's hand anyway? "Right."

He still hadn't looked at the picture.

It showed Keiko sitting in his lap, flyaway strands of hair surrounding her face. She had a handful of photos in one hand, with the other stretched out to Koutarou with a picture in it. He had no idea which one it was, he didn't even know that she had been showing him something when the picture was taken. Keiko was smiling up at him, his surprise at the photo being taken, or at the picture that she was showing him. His own eyes were wide, gaze off to the top corner of the picture. A small smile of his own lay across his mouth, and ... was that his tongue poking out? _Why_? His hair was pale and white and hung flat down over his face. Lifeless, dead. Even though he had planned only to come here to Akaashi's for the day, perhaps he should have done his hair. Maybe, from now on, now that he knew pictures were a _thing that Akaashi did_ , and a _thing that Keiko could just ask for_ , he would need to do his hair for future visits.

Akaashi snatched the picture back from his hands.

"Keiko is such a professional poser in pictures." She poked her tongue out at Akaashi, who only laughed. "It's cute."

Koutarou had wanted to complain about his hair, his deer in the headlight expression - but if Akaashi thought it was cute, maybe that was fine.

It got tucked away at the top of the pile in the box and put away with all the rest.

"Nobody will see it anyway Bokuto-san, stop worrying about your hair."


	5. Chapter 5

Bokuto didn't show up to school for two days, and Keiji found it astounding, the way in which it affected volleyball practice. In the mornings, the team was sluggish, they were sleepy and unresponsive and no matter what Keiji shouted out to try and motivate them, nothing worked. They had lost their mood maker, and he could never hope to be as motivating as Bokuto with his infectious energy. During afternoon practice, Keiji dealt out tosses to whoever called for them, and mostly people were elated at the extra attention they got, without Bokuto hogging his tosses. It didn't really help out with blocking practice though, not when the spikes weren't coming from the strongest member of their team. It boosted confidence to block an attack, but it was always nicer to block Bokuto, if they could block him, there wasn't much more to worry about.

It was Komi, midway through day two of no Bokuto, who decided to go over and visit him in the afternoon. They usually had off training, so the whole team ending up agreeing to go and visit their captain. Keiji wasn't quite on board with the idea of _everyone_ going to visit, but once all the third years had agreed he didn't have much say in the matter. Vice captain or not.

Keiji wasn't even sure if Bokuto would be up to having everyone visit, so he at least made Konoha mail him to let him know that he was about to be bombarded with the entire active roster of Fukurodani's volleyball team. He had to admit though, he was mostly worried for Bokuto's poor hair, surely he hadn't been doing it while at home sick. Would he even want to do it just for their visit though? Or would he simply give up the secret of his descent from legend? Keiji didn't know.

The docks stank as they exited the station, and Komi led them loudly through the fish markets, which at this time of the day were largely silent. Only a few people were meandering along the streets, and the vendors were all cleaning out stalls and styrofoam boxes, which earlier in the day must have been filled with fish. There were a large number of cats around too, Keiji wondered if they had owners, or if they were just strays who had learned that this was the best place for a fresh meal.

Komi led them up the stairs to the shrine, and Keiji followed, watching as some of the other members of the team looked around in confusion. Keiji probably would have been confused too, had he not learned recently of where Bokuto lived. Because really, he didn't exactly seem the type. On closer inspection, it was only the third years who didn't seem surprised. They had to have either been here before, or already knew.

Instead of heading around to the living quarters, Keiji followed again as Komi led them up to pray. He heard mutterings while they were there from the team, including a brief argument.

"What am I supposed to pray for?"

"Victory, always pray for victory!"

"No, you're meant to pray for fish here." The third years had definitely come to visit before then, given Washio's particular knowledge.

The white hair of the man who came out to greet them meant that it could only be Bokuto's father. He seemed old enough for nobody to question his hair, even if his face looked young. They were led by him to a lounge area, and told that Bokuto was in the bathroom and would be there soon. As everyone moved to sit down, Keiji went to ask after the location of the bathroom, and then quieter, so that nobody would hear, asked if Bokuto needed help with his hair.

Louder than Keiji would have expected, or would have liked, Bokuto's father replied. "Yes! Please go save him!" Everyone's heads whipped around to look, and Bokuto's father blurted out, "Sorry, I think I just heard Koutarou trip. He'll be fine, you can come check on him with me." Then he waved Keiji out of the room while motioning for the others to sit down. "I'll bring out some tea soon."

Keiji followed him out the door and down a long corridor with windows out to the courtyard. "I'm Bokuto Hikari by the way."

"Akaashi Keiji."

"Ah! So you're the one who knows our secret." Keiji nodded. "He really hasn't been out of bed the last couple of days, but when he heard that the team was coming of course he needed to do his hair, but-" He waved his hands around in a way that Keiji actually understood what he meant, probably a direct result of spending too much time around his son. It meant Bokuto didn't have the energy to get out of bed, which also meant that his hair hair probably been a mess before he even tried to style and colour it.

"I'll do my best."

Keiji was given a shining grin, similar to the one he was used to. "Great! Well just head through there, and I'll go and get that tea." He made it to the other end of the corridor, and then shouted out. "How many of you were there?"

"Twenty!" Keiji watched as he recoiled in shock, he wondered whether they even had enough crockery to handle so many people.

Back to the task at hand, Keiji knocked on the door in front of him.

"It's occupied!" Was shouted back in a hoarse voice.

Keiji sighed, based on his voice alone Bokuto was not up to seeing so many people. "I'm here to help Bokuto-san."

"Akaashi?" There was so much hope held in his voice. The door cracked open and golden eyes peered out at him through the gap. "Are you really going to help me?"

"Yes Bokuto-san, I thought you would need someone who wasn't struggling to breathe to help you with your hair."

Bokuto threw the door open further and draped himself over Keiji. "Akaashi! You're the best!"

Keiji felt his face scrunch up in displeasure. "Bokuto-san, please remember that you are sick."

"Right."

The arms were removed, and Bokuto stepped back enough to let Keiji through the door.

"You look horrible."

Akaashi! you can't say that!"

Bokuto was right, he probably should have refrained from saying that, but he really did look horrible. His face was pale, he had dark rings under his eyes, and his skin was red, raw and cracked around his nose. The mess of his hair was just that, a mess. It was greasy and hung low over his eyes. It had black marks in it, and a glance to Bokuto's hand showed that it contained a crayon, smudging his fingers black.

"You're a mess, pass it over." He took the crayon from Bokuto's hand before he had a chance to pass it over. "Where do you keep the gel? Do you usually put this in before you gel it up?"

Bokuto moved to sit on the lip of the bath. "The gel is in that cabinet." He waved his hand in the direction of the mirror, which Keiji discovered opened up. It was full of lotions, gels, toothpaste, a box of what looked like more black crayons, and what he was looking for. "Do the colour first, and then when you put the gel in the colour moves so that my hair doesn't look as white." Keiji nodded in understanding. "Make sure you put as much black as you can at the bottom."

Instructions received, Keiji crouched down awkwardly over Bokuto's head, and then began rubbing the crayon over Bokuto's scalp. Hopefully the colour would wash out of his skin, so that it didn't end up looking like Keiko had been the one trying to colour him in. Keiji tried to picture Bokuto's hair the way he wore it at school, where did the big clumps of black go? Did it matter? Did Bokuto actually make sure that everything looked exactly the same day to day? Keiji couldn't really think, when he thought of Bokuto now, it was mostly when he came to visit, and more and more often he had been coming over with his hair down.

He was sure that nobody on the team took enough notice of their captain that it mattered where Keiji drew in the blocks.

He twisted Bokuto's head gently in his hands as he worked, trying to at least make sure that he coloured in the parts most likely to be seen. The back of his neck, around his ears and forehead; it wouldn't matter so much in the middle of his head once it was all gelled up.

Keiji paused when he was finished with the crayon, should he clean up first, or gel it up straight away?

He decided to gel.

He scooped out a large amount of the substance, as per Bokuto's suggestion, and rubbed it between his fingers. Keiko took a deep breath to prepare himself, and then moved his fingers through Bokuto's hair. He started at the sides, and worked upwards to to it up at the top, spiking it at either side of his head. Bokuto let out a please hum. "This isn't a massage Bokuto-san." Keiji chided, even as he felt his mouth pull into a smile.

"Don't care, it feels nice."

"If you like people playing with your hair, you should let Keiko do it sometime. She'd love it."

"Okay then."

Keiji deemed his gelling of Bokuto's hair to be done. It looked similar enough to the way Bokuto usually wore it, less the mess from wayward strokes of the crayon. He picked up a towel, covered in black smudges and clearly used for this exact purpose. He soaked a corner of it under the tap, and carefully wiped it across Bokuto's forehead. He received another pleased sigh at the contact. "Ah, that's so nice Akaashi." Keiji cleaned the rest of the mess up, and then rinsed the towel out under the tap.

"Have you had a fever Bokuto-san?"

"Nope!" He cheered happily. Keiji didn't quite believe him, not based on how pleased he had been with the wet towel caressing his skin.

Keiji soaked the towel he had been using, wrung it out and carried it over to Bokuto only slightly damp. He crouched down in front of Bokuto and leaned in close so that he could rest their foreheads together. Bokuto's skin was scorching.

"You have a fever right now Bokuto-san."

Keiji moved away, and uses the towel to dab across Bokuto's entire face, and even down his neck. Bokuto leaned into the touch. "You're hopeless." Keiji mumbled under his breath. Bokuto didn't react, and Keiji was comforted by the fact that he didn't hear.

He tugged on the seams of Bokuto's shirt, and Bokuto obliged by lifting it up. Keiji used the towel to wipe down Bokuto's chest, and then across his back, wiping away the sheen of sweat from his body.

"I can't believe you're feverish and you didn't know." Bokuto just smiled up at him, long and lazy. "Go put on a new shirt and keep warm."

"Yes."

Keiji let him go, then washed his hands and rinsed the towel out again. It wasn't his house, but Bokuto had become so intimately involved in Keiji's household that he didn't feel too intrusive for opening up the two doors under the sink to search for a small towel to keep Bokuto cool.

He hung the damp towel up on a rack, and looked around the bathroom to make sure that everything was cleared away before leaving.

Konoha was at the door when he opened it, wearing a smirk that Keiji did not want to deal with. So he just walked past and back up the corridor he had come down earlier. He was guided along the way with the noise coming from the rest of his team, and he could hear Konoha's footsteps chasing after him from behind.

Back where the others had been left, they were split up among three tables that Keiji was sure hadn't been there earlier. Each table was laden with cups of tea and a plate of biscuits. Bokuto's dad really had gone all out. Keiji found a place to sit down next to Takei, who greeted him with a mouthful of biscuit. "Ew, no." Takei smiled back, biscuit lodged between all of his teeth. Why did Keiji put up with these people?

Bokuto came ambling down the hallway, and Keiji was sure that he had told him to dress warmly, but instead he was dressed in shorts and a shirt. At least he had a large blanket draped over his shoulders. He looked marginally better than when Keiji had first seen him just earlier.

"You look like shit." Someone called.

Bokuto held up two middle fingers in reply. "Go away, I'm sick. You have to be nice to me!"

Bokuto sat down at a table filled with most of the third years. Keiji watched him carefully pick up a biscuit and nibble on it for a few seconds before putting it down, barely touched.

"Bokuto-san, when was the last time you ate?"

Bokuto turned to look at him, and then gave a half hearted shrug. Keiji sighed. Why did this boy not know how to take care of himself. "Where's the kitchen? I'll make you some rice porridge."

Bokuto pointed towards a door in the corner of the room, and Keiji got up and made his way towards it. The door went through what appeared to be a walk in pantry, and on the other side it led into the kitchen. Strange, although he guessed it made things easier when there were large numbers of people to entertain, such as there were today. Keiji had been wary of having so many people over to Bokuto's house, but perhaps his family were actually used to it.

Keiji pulled out a container of rice as he walked through, and set it on the bench in the kitchen. The kitchen was very modern looking, and had far more fancy gadgets than he had at home. He was in awe looking around, before he shook himself back to his purpose. Keiji poured rice and water into the cooker and set it to go. With that set, he searched the cupboards for a bowl to put water in, and then used the display on the fridge to dispense ice and cold water into it. He carried the bowl out to Bokuto and told him to use it to keep his head cool, along with the small towel that he had taken from the bathroom earlier.

On his way back to the kitchen he heard his name whispered among people, and he moved faster. He'd rather not overhear people's opinion of him.

"Okay, we all knew Akaashi was the mum friend, but who knew he would be so good at taking care of someone?"

"Wow, Akaashi knows how to cook!"

"Rice isn't exactly cooking."

Walking faster did nothing to save him from their commentary.

He waited in the kitchen until the rice was finished, entertaining himself by exploring all of the kitchen contraptions. Shiharu would be in heaven if she had a kitchen that looked like this, he would be in heaven if Shiharu had a kitchen like this.

Keiji carried out the steaming bowl and set it down in front of Bokuto.

"Thanks Akaashi!"

"Eat."

Keiji noticed that the towel he had given Bokuto was sitting in the bowl. He pulled it out, squeezed out the excess water, and dabbed it over Bokuto's forehead. He made sure not to get too close to his hairline. "You need to keep your head cool Bokuto-san, it's not good for your brain if it gets too hot." Bokuto pouted at him. He ignored it and carried on in a lower voice that only Bokuto would hear. "Just keep it to above your eyebrows if you're worried about your hair."

Bokuto nodded; so that had been the problem after all.

Keiji pulled the blanket that Bokuto still had draped around his shoulders like a scarf so that it fell down around him. "And keep the rest of yourself warm Bokuto-san, can you do that for me?" Bokuto nodded again. "Well I have to go now." He had noticed while he was cooking that it had gotten far later than expected. If he had taken that long to do Bokuto's hair it was no wonder that Konoha had come looking for them. "Look after yourself." He lay a hand on Bokuto's forehead, even with the cool towel his face was hot. "Keep using it." He frowned at Bokuto, he had a feeling that as soon as he left it would end up forgotten in the bowl again.

"Bye Akaashi, thanks for coming!" Bokuto smiled at him, and Keiji tried to ignore the giggles coming from the team around them.

"See you, Bokuto-san."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thing with Bokuto now knowing more about Keiji than he had ever expected to share with anyone, was that whenever he was over Shiharu had no problem inviting him to stay longer and longer each time. Shiharu also insisted that now Bokuto knew their _big secret_ , that he could join the entire family for dinner. Keiji still maintained that it wasn't a big secret, it just wasn't something that he really went around telling people; especially considering that it was a really personal topic and something he tended to get very emotional over.

One thing Keiji had to admit was cute about Bokuto coming over though, was how much the other children idolised him.

Kanata and Yuudai fawned over him for all of his volleyball stories about how he _singlehandedly_ won games for the team. All his stories were exaggerated, but unlike when Bokuto waxed poetic about his abilities to his friends, Keiji didn't mind the exaggeration for his family. It made their eyes light up, and now the both of them wanted to join the volleyball team when they moved up to junior high. Bokuto preened under their spotlight, and Keiji didn't have the heart to tell him that it would still be a couple of years before that happened, and that Bokuto was unlikely to still be a hero to them when the time did come.

Akane and Aoi enjoyed playing with Bokuto because he was stronger than Keiji. They could crawl all over him and he would lift them up and throw them around - to Keiji's horror and their delight - and never even complain about being sore or tired. With all the energy that the two toddlers contained in their small bodies it was no wonder really that Shiharu kept inviting Bokuto to stay later. By playing with them, they went to bed much easier at night, tired from the exhaustion that came from playing with Bokuto.

Keiji's favourite thing to watch though were the girls. Nao and Rio _loved_ Bokuto, and Keiji spent many a moment watching them interact with his friend, and then talking to Shiharu about their behaviour. This always led to Shiharu gushing over how her girls had grown up and had their first crush. Keiji maintained the illusion that it was simply admiration over being so close to someone new; pointedly ignoring the conversations where they fought over who would get to marry _Boku-nii_ when they were older.

Nao got to, because she was older and therefore a better candidate than Rio.

They gushed over him, and Keiji could only hope they weren't actually serious.

Today's argument for marriage revolved around whose hand fit Bokuto's best, because they would have to hold hands all the time when they got married.

Currently they were each sat with a hand in each of Bokuto's, doing their homework at the table while Bokuto sat quietly for Keiko to colour in his hair. Somewhere along the line she had found out that he coloured it in each day for school, and had insisted that she could do a better job. Keiji was working on his history assignment, but mostly hoping that the pens Keiko was using would wash out. He should probably look into buying the crayons that Bokuto used if this was going to become a regular thing for Keiko to do, seeing as they were actually meant for hair.

Shiharu called them all to clean the lounge so that they could eat.

The girls made noises of despair at needing to let go of Bokuto, while Keiji and Keiko led the others with clearing up the table. Keiji carried his assignment upstairs, and also led Keiko to the bathroom so that she could wash her hands of the markers she had been using in Bokuto's hair. When Keiko was cleaned up as much as possible - there was still some purple smudged into her fingers that was not going to come out soon - he went back into the kitchen to help Shiharu with carrying the food out.

Keiji sat down at the table opposite Bokuto who was still squeezed between the girls. Shiharu sat to one side of him, and Keiko was on the other. They called out their thanks for the meal and began to eat, Rio and Nao occasionally taking the time to feed Bokuto with their chopsticks, and blushing each time he took the chopsticks into his mouth. Keiji hated that the thought of _indirect kisses_ crossed his mind.

Shiharu must have seen the act too.

"So who will be marrying Bokuto-kun today?"

"I am!" Rio called. Holding her hands up to show them. Keiji didn't know why. "My hands fit better." So that was why.

"Why are your hands better?" Shiharu asked. Keiji was curious too, not that he would ever admit that out loud.

"Because they're smaller than onee-chan's!" She held her hand across Bokuto and Nao held up her own hand to meet it, palm to palm. "See!"

Keiji could barely see the difference, but sure, Rio's hand was maybe a _little bit_ smaller.

"If small hands is all it takes, I should marry Keiko!" Bokuto chirped out excitedly.

He misses the glare Keiji sends his way. "Bokuto-san, I will never allow you to marry my sister."

"Akaashi!" Bokuto whined. "Don't you trust me to look after her?"

"That doesn't mean that I will let you marry her."

"Keiko's hands are _too_ small." Rio chimes in, holding her hands out once again, this time to Keiko across the table. Keiko obligingly holds her hand out to be measured, and it is much smaller than Rio's hand. "Boku-nii would crush her hands." To prove her point, Rio reaches out for Bokuto's left hand to hold out for measuring against Keiko's. Bokuto's hand is easily twice the size of Keiko's tiny hand.

"There, you see Bokuto-san. The hand theory won't let you marry Keiko."

"Hand theory?" Shiharu laughs at him, and Keiji feels his cheeks heat up, goes to put some food in his mouth so that he has a longer time in which to reply.

"Is that not what they are trying to say?" He thinks it's a genuine question. There has to be a name for what they're doing.

"How big are Kei-nii's hands?" Nao asks. Keiji holds out his left hand over the table. Nao raises a palm up to his and locks their fingers. "Perfect!" Keiji is not sure that he likes where this is going. "If Rio gets to marry Boku-nii, then I'll marry Kei-nii!"

Shiharu is hiding her giggling behind a hand, but Keiji shoots her a dark look anyway. She shouldn't be encouraging her children like this. "I'm sorry Nao, that's never going to happen." Keiji is thankful that Shiharu has finally come through for him.

Nao looks to be on the verge of tears. Why had this conversation come up anyway? Why were his two sisters who were only in junior high, talking about marrying one of his closest friends? Did girls really start thinking of marriage so young? When would he have to start worrying about Keiko coming home and telling him that she had found someone to marry?

"I'm sorry Kei-nii. I forgot."

Shiharu joins in the game, and holds her hand out for Keiji to grasp. "Oh look, I'm going to marry mum."

The entire table turns to them with eyes wide and mouths hanging open. Were they really that shocked by that? Keiji thought that it was obviously a joke. Shiharu pulls his hand up to kiss his knuckles. At the action Nao actually screams and variations of _I'm telling dad_ are shouted across the table.

"Yes, yes." Shiharu lowers their hands, and goes back to her food. "Let's all just finish eating first."

Later, Keiji is back to his history assignment at his desk while Bokuto and Keiko draw together at the lower table. He's thinking about how to finish the sentence he's working on when he hears them whispering to each other.

"I like onii-chan's hands the best." Keiko is saying.

"Me too." Is Bokuto's quiet reply.

When Keiji shows Bokuto to the door when he leaves for home, Bokuto grasps at his hand to put them palm to palm. "Much better." Keiji isn't sure if Bokuto knows that he has said those words out loud. "Our hands are perfect together, that's why your hands move the ball so easily into mine."

Of course Bokuto would manage to turn it all into volleyball. "Of course Bokuto-san." He grips Bokuto's fingers between his, tighter, for the briefest of moments, and can feel how rough his hand is. Callouses from their constant attack of the ball.

Then Keiji is letting go and stepping back as Bokuto leaves the house.


	6. Chapter 6

Before he gets everything finalised to leave for the week long training camp, Keiji makes sure that Keiko is out of bed, and that both bunks are made prime for sleeping. With the room settled, he sits down to an early breakfast with only Keiko and Shiharu, with the latter also packing him a lunch.

"You know we will actually get fed at Shinzen Shiharu-san."

"Yes, but I know that you'll eat it anyway Keiji." She's not wrong, and there was never anything wrong with having more food to eat.

Keiji had been to the training camp before, but this time was different. The _week_ clearly differentiates itself from the _weekend_ training camps when he is woken up first thing in the morning, far before he had planned to be awake. Bokuto is shaking his shoulders where he lies on his futon and is asking him to _please, please, please get up Akaashi_. When he finally manages to convince his eyes to open, he sees Bokuto with his hair white and down. It's strange really, for some reason Keiji had pictured him sleeping with business as usual at the top of his head.

That apparently changed when he had to keep the illusion up for an entire week.

"Akaashi! You have to help before the others wake up!" Bokuto is whining loud enough for Onaga who is in the futon next to Keiji to grumble in his sleep. Bokuto stops moving entirely and just gives Keiji a sorrowful stare. Keiji lets out a long sigh, he is weak, and he can see that Bokuto knows that he has agreed to get up.

When Bokuto finally opens the door into the bathroom, Keiji is surprised to find Kuroo there with both of his hands buried in a bag packed, with what Keiji learns, is hair gel and the black crayons that Bokuto uses.

"Good morning Kuroo-san." Keiji says upon seeing him. Kuroo jumps at his voice, clearly his presence had been unexpected, even though it looks like he's waiting for Bokuto. "Are you here to do you hair too?" With what he has learned about Bokuto and his hair, it wouldn't surprise him if the Nekoma captain was also against his hair being seen in it's natural form.

"Yeah right, I was this was manufactured, then I could return it and get something different." Keiji finds it hard to believe that Kuroo's hair is not an artfully styled mess, but if it makes him feel better, Keiji will play along.

Bokuto sits down on a bench in front of them and Kuroo hands a crayon to Keiji, he has another one that he keeps for himself. "Let's make some art!" He cheers, and then starts colouring in Bokuto's hair.

"Do you really need two people for this Bokuto-san?" Keiji asks, even as he starts colouring along the back of Bokuto's hair seeing as Kuroo is handling the front. "Do you even need one person? Don't you usually do this yourself?"

Kuroo laughs at him. "I think he just likes having his hair played with." Bokuto smiles up at them, it's an admission to the statement as much as anything.

"I figured that much out already." Keiji says.

"That purple was hard to get out."

"If it makes you feel better Bokuto-san, it was also hard to get out of skin."

"Sorry."

"No, I just need to get some of these crayons but in actual colours. I'm sorry but I think it is going to become a regular thing."

"Really!" Bokuto almost looks like he is going to jump up from the bench in excitement.

"Oi! Stay still if you don't want this all over your face." Kuroo grumbles.

"Is _this_ going to be a regular thing?" Keiji asks, hoping the answer will be no, knowing that he's going to be let down.

"Yes! Isn't it fun?" Bokuto chimes in cheerfully. It's easy for him to say, he doesn't have to do anything except sit down while Keiji and Kuroo make him look pretty.

Keiji shares a look with Kuroo over Bokuto's head, and he thinks that they are sharing woes over the extra hour of sleep they are going to miss out on every morning for doing this - but with Kuroo, Keiji is never actually sure what he is thinking. He's going to have to start trying to sleep earlier if he's going to be getting up at this time every morning.

Bokuto's mood becomes more and more like being on a rollercoaster as the week wears on. One minute he's on top of the world, the next second he's tipping over the edge, falling, falling, falling; claiming that he doesn't ever want to touch a volleyball again in his life. Bokuto doesn't even want anyone to look at him, because apparently it will just bring them down as well. Keiji finds out that the main reason for the rapid changes is a lack of sleep. Kuroo has told him that Bokuto makes sure that he is the last one in the bath each night, and only bathes after making sure that everyone else has gone to their rooms and is unlikely to be walking around the rest of the night. Kuroo also shares that the two of them even have a hiding spot they use for when members of Fukurodani are not asleep when Bokuto has finished bathing.

Kuroo invites Keiji to stay up with them one night. He joins them in playing poker with captains and vice captains from other schools, but he doesn't remember much, he falls asleep while they are still playing. He doesn't try to stay up with them again, just makes sure that he's there in the morning so that Bokuto won't need to cry about his hair, while Kuroo wails next to him that at least Bokuto's hair is fixable.

Keiji is still having doubts about Kuroo's hair, but he will let it be.

Hes does find out later, from Kenma and with almost documentative levels of photographic evidence that Kuroo does in fact wake up with his hair like that. Mostly, he's surprised that Kuroo wakes up at all given the face down position he appears to sleep in; if Keiji is to believe the pictures Kenma shows him. _How does he breathe like that_?

Finally, as the last morning of camp dawns Keiji sits Kuroo down on the bench next to Bokuto, and after the time that it takes for him to style Bokuto's hair, he works on Kuroo's. He purrs like a cat as Keiji works his hands through his mess of hair, and Keiji comes to the realisation that Kuroo's hair is much thicker than Bokutos, and much harder to get into an agreeable style with the gel. The most that Keiji can do is get the small tuft of hair that sits over his eyes to sit off of his face. Hopefully it's a little more comfortable for him.

"I can see why you like this so much." Kuroo purrs to Bokuto next to him, who appears to be half asleep and largely unresponsive now that his hair is done. Keiji just smiles at the both of them and goes to wash his hands free of the gel and crayons that have stuck to him.

At the end of the week, Keiji is happy to be going home to his own bed. His own bed where he won't need to be woken up in the morning to style hair that wasn't even his own, he never got up in the morning with plans to style his own hair.

Really the only downside is that Keiko insists on sleeping with him the first night that he is back, but as always, once he folds their bodies around each other enough to get comfortable, his fatigue from the week hits, and he is out like a light.

Keiji wakes late into the morning to a quiet and empty room, and he thinks that a full night of sleep has never felt so good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keiji is greeted at the first volleyball practice of the new semester with Takei assaulting him with a magazine. "Why didn't you tell me you had a harem?" He think that his friend might have finally taken a ball too hard to the head.

"I don't even know what you are talking about."

Takei picks up the magazine where it is lying by Keiji's feet, and flicks through to a page about the summer festival in the city. Takei turns another page, and Keiji sighs. "I'm not going to look at what you want unless you let me read the whole thing."

Takei scowls at him before hitting him on the shoulder with the rolled up magazine. "Fine, here."

He can see from the front of the article that it was written by Seiji. Keiji hadn't even known that he was reporting on the festival when they had been going, but now that he reflects on it, it should have been obvious - Seiji had put makeup on before they went out. Just under the title is a picture of Seiji with Shiharu, Akane and Aoi. They are the main focus, but he can see Yuudai and Kanata in the background too.

He reads through the whole article, it's easy to pick up the style, he enjoys the way Seiji writes, the way he presents information, how Seiji works. When he's announcing on television most of his speeches are written for him, but for the magazine they are all his own, and Keiji will always love the way in which he weaves his words together like he's crafting a spell. Seiji writes about the stalls and markets, and Keiji can already smell the food and hear the crowd and feel the mask back over his face; transported back to when he was there.

He finally makes it to the section that he is pretty sure Takei is referring to. There is half a page dedicated to pictures taken on the night, and Keiji is in two of them. One of them has him at a stall scooping fish with Nao, Rio and Keiko. The three girls have their hands in the water while Keiji is crouched down next to them and talking to a white haired Bokuto, who had been running the stall. The second picture has him standing with Keiko on his shoulders, Nao and Rio are with him still, but so is the rest of the family; fireworks lighting up the sky behind them.

He runs out to the court where Takei is stretching, runs his laps first to warm up and then sits down to stretch next to him. "Why would you call that my harem?" He hisses out to Takei.

"You were at the festival with three girls!" Takei says it louder then it ever needed to be said considering that they were sitting next to each other. Luckily for Keiji, the gym also makes everything louder and now half the team has heard.

"You went to the festival with three girls!"

If looks could kill, Keiji likes to think that Takei would be keeling over where he was sat. "I did not." He's _almost_ tempted to say that he went with five girls.

"Yes he did, Akaashi has a harem." When did he ever become friends with Takei? How did that happen, and what made them stay friends? At the moment he really has no idea. At the moment, all Keiji wants is to hit him, or wrap his hands around his neck, or _anything_ that will make him stop talking.

"Akaashi has a harem?" Great, now Bokuto has heard too. "How come you didn't tell me?" Oh no, and now he's whining, already. It's only their first day back. "I thought we were friends Akaashi you should have told me!" Where did he go wrong in life? This was not a valid reason for Bokuto to become dejected, not _before practice even started_.

Keiji threw the magazine in his hands at Bokuto, it hits him in the chest and he catches it in his arms. Keiji can't be bothered explaining, he can just see for himself. The whole team ends up crowded around their captain, and even Takei manages to squeeze his way in until he can show them all what they are looking for.

He hears Bokuto laughs, and Keiji instantly feels himself relax. At least that was one problem dealt with, Bokuto had cheered up.

"For your information," Keiji directs to the crowd of boys who are now hooting and whistling at him. "They have names in the corner to show who is in the pictures."

A catcall. "Now we'll know the names of Akaashi's girlfriends."

"Wow Akaashi, they're all younger than you! You're a devil!"

In all of his life, Keiji has never felt so scared for the future of his country. "One of them is five!" He calls out, exasperated. "And if you actually looked at their names you'll find that one of them is my sister!"

"Wow! Keiko-chan is so big now, I haven't seen her in forever!" Keiji hoped that this meant that Takei would no longer be asking after his harem. "I remember the first time she came to one of our matches when she was just a baby. She's practically all grown up now!"

Bokuto is staring at him again. "Keiko used to watch your volleyball games?"

Unfortunately, it is Takei who answers him. "Akaashi's parents came to every single game in our first year of junior high. They used to bring food for the end of the games and Keiko-chan would just scream instead of cheering because I don't think she knew why everyone was being so loud."

"Really?" Bokuto asks. Keiji nods. "Why doesn't she come to the games now?"

"She goes to school."

"What about your parents coming again?" Takei asks, and Keiji knows that it has everything to do with them providing food at the end of the games - perks of having a chef for a mother.

"They're busy."

Keiji hopes that this will be the end of the conversation, and for once, Bokuto agrees. "Hey, hey, hey! Let's actually get to training now guys!"

Unfortunately for Keiji, the conversation doesn't end once training finishes, instead, rather fortunately he likes to think, it has taken a different turn.

Leaving the gym after practice Keiji is ambushed by five girls from his class. "Akaashi-kun, this is you right?" A now familiar magazine spread is held out in front of him, and he's beginning to realise that nobody he knows is aware of the fact that any pictures published in newspapers and magazines are accompanied by the names of those pictured.

"Yes, that is me."

"Harem!" Takei hisses into his ear behind him - Keiji needs to find better friends.

"Do you know this guy?" She points out Bokuto in the picture.

"Yes, I do." He thinks it should be obvious, but then again, just because the picture shows him talking to Bokuto it wouldn't necessarily mean that Keiji knew him. After all, the captioned name for Bokuto just reads _stall owner_ , even though Keiji likes to think that the soft smile directed his way in the picture shows that they do have a friendly relationship. Keiji spies Bokuto leaving the gym with the rest of the third years, and wonders what he would think if he knew these girls were asking after him.

"Can you give me his mail address?" One girl has asked him, but all of them are looking up at him with hearts in their eyes.

"Sorry, I don't know it."

"Akaashi doesn't have a phone, so he wouldn't know." Takei adds beside him.

"Look, it's Akaashi's harem!" This time it is Komi's voice shouting down at him, and it's been an hour, but Keiji is sick of the jokes already. He feels offended on behalf of the girls he's talking to, but instead of getting offended themselves, they all giggle.

He didn't sign up for this.

Keiji gets asked a number of times throughout the day who the stall keeper was in the picture. He doesn't keep count, mostly because he stopped once it reached double digits. It's exhausting, since he spends the day listening to Takei complain about all the girls that have talked to him that day; and all of those same girls ignoring Takei. Keiji makes a promise that if it happens again tomorrow he will direct the girls Takei's way, just to placate him. It results in the biggest smile that Keiji has ever born witness to, so even though it had only been placating, he's been convinced to actually follow through.

Bokuto walks home with him following afternoon practice, and of course has to ask about the girls who had hounded after him all day. Keiji tells him that what they were all after was Bokuto's mail address.

"If they wanted that, why didn't they ask me?"

"They probably didn't know it was you. They kept asking after the guy who was in the magazine picture." Bokuto blushes, it's almost strange to see him turning shy. "I can tell them it's you if you like. Then they can stop talking to me and just go and ask you."

"Please don't!"

"Okay then. Also, you should wash your hair when we get home."

"I don't know where that came from, but okay."

"Keiko bought some of those hair chalks," Keiji wishes he had known they were called _chalk_ , wishes somebody had told him that he was calling them the wrong thing. He wouldn't have needed to call them crayons, even if they looked a lot like the crayons Keiko used all the time. "She wants to colour your hair in properly."

Bokuto smiles, beating the beaming smile that Takei's had been earlier. "Yes! Let's get home then!"


	7. Chapter 7

Koutarou makes his way to Akaashi's house on Saturday afternoon after volleyball practice. Akaashi had called the team advisor earlier to say that he needed to do something for his family and as such would not be able to make it to practice. Not for the first time, Koutarou wished that Akaashi had a phone so that he could tell him what was up, and so that he could see if there was anyway he could help too. He understood though, Akaashi's reasons for not having one, that he didn't feel like he needed one right now when it was something he got along perfectly fine without. Still, now that he was free he wanted to offer his help in person.

He was greeted by Keiko when the front door opened. "You shouldn't open the door Keiko, what if it was a stranger?"

"But I was hoping for onii-san!" The statement made him feel like he could fly, still, she shouldn't be opening the door by herself.

"Where's Akaashi?" He asked instead of reprimanding her. If he scolded her, she probably wouldn't enjoy him coming over as much; and he _so loved_ that she liked him.

"He's playing football!"

Koutarou felt like he had been flying earlier, and not all he could feel was his heart breaking. Akaashi had left him for another sport. How could he?

"He's playing _football_?" He repeated the words, he needed to know that he had heard it right, hoped to be told that he had heard wrong.

Keiko nodded, and Koutarou felt like life as he knew it was over. "Our parents are sick so onii-chan went to Nao-nee's practice game."

"I see." He was a whole person once more.

Keiko took his hand then, and pulled him in from the doorway where they were still standing, his fumbling emotions not having left him with the room to think of actually entering the house. He was dragged into the living room, where Keiko sat down in front of a pile of paper, all of it covered in writing and covering the entirety of the table.

"Are you practicing kanji?"

"Yes!" Keiko picked up a pen and went back to writing on the paper. "We just started it at school, but I already know how to write everyone in my family's name!"

"Wow! you're a really fast learner." Instead of thinking that she would probably remember how to print _worry_ before he did, Koutarou just picked her up and deposited her in his lap to sit. Then he picked up the pen from her hand and printed his own name. "Do you know what this one says?"

Keiko frowned down at the paper for a short while, clearly not wanting to give in. Eventually Koutarou felt her body sag and decided to just tell her. "This is my name!" He wrote down the pronunciation next to the characters.

Keiko read it out to him, and he beamed at her. "Kō-ta-rō." She looked at him. "What does it mean?"

"It means _big son of light_." He recited.

"Oh!" She dragged the sound out as if she had learned a universal truth. Koutarou also wanted to know what she was so excited about. "Is that why you have the light?" She asked, pointing at his hair. Koutarou had never thought of it like that. He had always just thought that his parents had gotten a kick out of naming him from his dads name. He had never thought to ask a five year old about the meaning of his name before going straight to thinking that his parents had a sick sense of humour.

"Yes!" He said, instead of bowling the girl over with his inner thoughts.

He sat and silently watched as she practiced her kanji. Soon she was writing them all down in a long list. Her parents at the top, followed by Akaashi and the rest of her family. Koutarou thought that he was going to cry when he saw his own name written under the list titled brothers.

When the list was finished, Keiko asked if she could play with his hair again. Koutarou agreed quickly following her up to her bedroom in order to do so. Before she got to playing with his hair though, she explained, longwindedly, about how she had discovered that if she coloured her hair in white first, then the colour showed up much brighter. Taking the opportunity presented, he coloured the little strip that she wanted done in white, and then went over it in red. Koutarou was content with any colour that Keiko chose to use, and so today his hair ended up coloured blue and orange.

He didn't know how much time had passed, or even that Akaashi had come home. All he knew was that he was woken up with a startling flash attacking him from behind closed eyes. Then he noticed that his head was down on the table in Akaashi's room, and that Keiko had somehow got her hands to some hair gel and was playing with his hair. The flash had been Akaashi's little camera going off. All Akaashi said was _here_ , and he set the developing picture down on the table before he left the room again.

Koutarou heard other voices in the house, and Akaashi shouting out something to someone, but he didn't come back to the room for another ten minutes. And when he did, Akaashi was in a towel and dripping water everywhere. Koutarou quickly averted his eyes and left the room. In the lounge he found Nao sitting at the table with the rest of the family, who, he finally realised, had been absent the entire time that he had been at the house.

"Nao-chan! How did your practice match go?" Koutarou wasn't entirely sure how football matches were played, but it sounded like it went well. Nao's team definitely won, and she kept saying something about her _offside-trap_ , which Kanata and Yuudai also seemed excited by. Koutarou assumed that it was something good, and clapped her on the back with a _well done_. He may have slapped a bit hard given the wince, so he resolved to never do it again no matter how much he wanted to. He had been told before that slapping a back was different to a volleyball, but this was the first time that he had really seen someone flinch from it. At least the message had finally been received.

Keiko ran back downstairs after a while with a loud whispers of "Onii-chan matches!" with an accompanying giggle. Koutarou had no idea what that meant.

Rio soon joined them, toweling off her own hair after a shower. Koutarou learned that she was on the cheer team at school, and had also been at the game. He didn't even know that cheer teams went to practice matches as well - the cheer team at Fukurodani certainly didn't. Him saying so only resulted in everyone at the table laughing at him because _of course they don't, but you always cheer for family_.

Koutarou nearly cried for the second time that day, he had never met a group of people who cared as much for their family as everyone living in this house did.

Eventually the conversation was cut off with Kanata saying "When is Kei-nii making dinner?"

This made Koutarou feel like he had been intruding for far too long, especially given that he hadn't talked to Akaashi at all today, and that Akaashi had only said one word to him. "I'll go check on him." He stood up from the table and made his way upstairs to see what Akaashi was up to. He would go home afterwards. It wouldn't be fair to stay considering that the parents of the household were currently absent due to sickness and work. He really didn't want to impose on the rest of the family.

He found Akaashi splayed out on his bed in a large t-shirt and sweatpants. He had placed a towel under his head and over the pillow where his still wet hair was dripping into it. Koutarou could see now why Keiko had said that they were matching. It was barely visible, but he could see where the red chalk had been applied liberally to Akaashi's hair. There was even a small patch by his ear that showed where she had started trying to get it white first, but had clearly given up.

Koutarou tried hard to keep his eyes on Akaashi's hair, because otherwise it would be drawn to the collarbones he could see through the large collar of the shirt Akaashi was wearing. He didn't need to think about that.

"Akaashi." He didn't want to be too loud, even though the purpose was to wake him up. "Akaashi!" He stepped closer to the bed and ran a hand through Akaashi's hair. The hand came away both wet and red. Not good; but definitely good that Akaashi had put a towel down on the pillow, or that would have probably been stained red too. He carded his fingers through Akaashi's hair again, and this time it was received with a hum of noise from the boy asleep under his fingers. "Akaashi, you know you shouldn't go to sleep with your hair wet. You'll catch a cold."

"Mmmm."

"Also, I was told that you were cooking dinner tonight."

That seemed to help him open his eyes. Koutarou kept the smile that he wanted to break out to himself by biting down on his lip - there was nothing like responsibility to get Akaashi awake. Akaashi blinked up at him with bleary eyes, and Koutarou felt like he could see the realisation of what he had said shine though them as the words registered in Akaashi's head.

"Dinner."

"Yes."

"Oh right, I'm cooking dinner tonight."

"That's what I've been told!"

Akaashi stood up from the bed, and stretched out his body. It didn't take him long to wake up, because then he was pulling Koutarou up from where he sat on the bed and dragging him down the stairs behind him. "You'll have to tell me how you like it."

"Oh, I wasn't going to stay."

Akaashi looked over his shoulder at him, tugging an apron on, and soon there was a chorus chiming at him from the lounge. "You have to stay!" He didn't really need that much convincing, he just hadn't wanted to be in the way.

Akaashi shooed him from the kitchen, and he sat down at the table with the rest of the family, helping them set up all the plates for dinner and sneaking occasional glances to the kitchen to watch as Akaashi moved around while he cooked their food.

When it was ready, Nao helped Akaashi to bring the food out, and Koutarou was surprised at the meal in front of him.

"Steak?"

Akaashi shrugged. "It was on special." Akaashi then made a point of loading up the vegetables in the middle of the table onto everyone's plates. "Make sure you eat them too." He said, placing some on Koutarou's plate. He pulled a face at Akaashi, that got the boys laughing at him, but then he ate all the vegetables as ordered.

The food was good. More than just good.

"Do you make food often?"

"Usually once a week."

"What! Why haven't I had your food before?" Koutarou was in despair. Of course he had eaten food before that Akaashi had cooked, but that had either been when he was sick, or when he was cooking food that Shiharu had prepared and they made it together. Koutarou wanted to eat food made solely by his friend more often.

"You don't eat here on the days I usually cook." Akaashi didn't seem to understand what a horrible problem this was.

Halfway through dinner, Akaashi disappeared in order to deliver food to where Shiharu was tucked up in bed. He came back with a strange look on his face. "How come you said that you were leaving earlier if you're sleeping over?"

"I never said that I was going to stay over."

Akaashi stared at him for a second, _two_ , as if waiting for Koutarou to keep talking, or to call out that it was a joke or something. "Then why did Shiharu-san say--"

"We asked her if Boku-nii could stay over tonight!"

Akaashi's eyes moved from Koutarou to Kanata. "You asked for him to stay?" Three heads nodded back at him. "Did anyone ask Bokuto-san if he even wanted to stay?" Three heads were shaken back at Akaashi.

Then the three heads turned to him. "But why would Boku-nii want to leave?"

"You do want to stay over right Boku-nii?"

Even if he had been wavering, those faces looking at him like that would have convinced him to stay. "Of course I do!" He ruffled Kanata's hair, much to the boys apparent delight. "Let me just go call my parents up then!"

Akaashi offered his room to make the call in privacy, so Koutaoru took himself there to make it. It wasn't long. His dad just asked if he had permission to stay over, which he had received before he even knew it. His dad agreed then, saying that he would see Koutarou tomorrow afternoon. He hung up. He thought that maybe Akaashi had expected the conversation to last longer, so he waited around in the room for a couple of minutes to make it seem like the conversation had lasted for more than thirty seconds.

He had just sat himself down on Akaashi's bed when there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" He called out, thinking that it was a little jarring to be inviting someone into a room that wasn't his, especially when it was Akaashi and Keiko who walked in.

Keiko changed into pyjamas, and he realised then that Akaashi was also wearing what could be considered makeshift pyjamas. Koutarou didn't have anything to change into, he had also come from volleyball practice. He was about to ask if he could borrow some clothes to wear for the night when Akaashi passed him a shirt and some shorts.

"You can go wash first if you want as well."

He did. Akaashi showed him into the washroom, and then went back to fetch him a towel. Akaashi showed him what products he was allowed to use if he so wished before leaving again.

Akaashi's shorts were tight around his thighs when he put them on, but the shirt fit just fine. Koutarou wasn't sure what to do with the towel, so he left it hanging up on the chair in Akaashi's room once he had dried his hair.

When Koutarou made it back downstairs, he felt like the room had been transformed. The table had been pushed to the side of the room, the centre taken up with four futons covered in blankets and pillows. On the table, a large computer screen appeared to have been set up, which was currently playing a movie.

"Sorry onii-san, I started it already."

Keiko was smiling up at him from where she was sat in Nao's lap. Koutarou's first thought, before even thinking about what she had said, was to wonder why she wasn't in Akaashi's lap.

"That's okay!" He cheered back. Keiko smiled back at him wider before focusing her attention back on the movie.

Koutarou sat himself down next to Akaashi, finding that he had a plate of cookies in his lap. Akaashi didn't even spare him a glance as Koutarou reached down to grab one.

"These are warm!" He called out, stating the obvious now that he noticed that everyone else was either chewing on a cookie or had one in their hands.

"I just made them." Akaashi said, sending a small smile his way as he reached for another one himself.

Had he really been away long enough for Akaashi to back a batch of cookies? No wonder they had started the movie without him. Koutarou didn't know what the movie was, but it involved animated owls, which didn't seem like it could possibly be a bad movie.

As he watched, he noticed that for a movie that Keiko had apparently picked to watch, it was surprisingly dark. Was this a kids movie? Akaashi let his sister watch this movie? Maybe she liked it because the main character appeared to live in a family that wasn't necessarily related. He could see the appeal of that given the family that he was currently watching the movie with. At one point in the movie, Koutarou even noticed Akaashi getting restless, was this movie too dark for him too? Keiko he could understand but ... oh.

_Oh_.

The little sister owl had just been betrayed and maybe he could understand why Akaashi didn't like this part. He felt proud of himself for realising this, smart, because soon after he had the thought he saw Akaashi's eyes seeking out Keiko where she was still sat with Nao.

Koutarou reached over for another cookie, nudging his leg against Akaashi's in what he hoped was a show of support. Their legs remained together for the rest of the movie, and even if he hadn't been watching he could have guessed at what was happening on screen based on the way that Akaashi's leg moved against his.

Yuudai picked the next movie to watch, and Keiko left the room for a moment, coming back to sit on the other side of Akaashi. Koutarou was passed the plate of cookies and Akaashi used his now free hands to wrap his arm around Keiko. She nestled into his side, and Koutarou thought that they both looked cute cuddled up like that.

The second movie couldn't have been more than halfway through when Koutarou noticed that Keiko had fallen asleep next to Akaashi. He only noticed because of the way Akaashi kept moving, slowly, but noticeably to him, picking up blankets and a pillow so that by the end of it, Keiko was all covered up. All tucked in, she was barely noticeable beneath the nest of blankets that Akaashi had built up around her.

When Akaashi turned back to watch the movie, he reached out a hand for a cookie, and Koutarou placed one in his palm.

The second movie finished, and only Kanata, Akaashi and himself were still awake. Nao and Rio were nestled in amongst their own pile of blankets on a shared futon, Yuudai was snoring softly next to Kanata where they were sharing a futon, and Keiko was asleep next to Akaashi on their futon. Koutarou only now noticed that he had been given a futon to himself.

Kanata stood up to change to another movie, and Akaashi got up as well, slowly extracting himself from Keiko's nest.

Akaashi shuffled over to Koutarou, and whispered in his ear if he wanted anything to eat or drink. He was about to shake his head, and then realised that the plate on his lap was empty. When had that happened? Akaashi caught the movement of his eyes, and took the plate from his lap - Koutarou ignored the way his hand grazed across his bare thigh - and disappeared into the kitchen.

Kanata's movie had started, so he settled in to watched while he waited for Akaashi to come back.

It was a horror movie.

What was an eight year old doing watching a horror movie?

At night, when it was dark; in a room full of people contributing to breathing and scuffling sounds?

Koutarou nearly spilled whatever Akaashi was offering when he came back, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. He was passed a mug, which turned out to be chamomile tea with some kind of spice, and a small pack of chocolates. Akaashi delivered the same goods to Kanata before sitting down next to him. On the same futon this time.

Akaashi jumped throughout the movie, and Koutarou decided that this must have been the reason for him choosing to sit with him rather than back with his sister. Kanata on the other hand seemed to have no problem with the movie or with being scared at all. Koutarou hadn't seen him jump or flinch or muffle what could possibly have ended up being a very loud scream at all - Koutarou had definitely not done all three.

He was startled again by a persistent scratch at his side, and Koutarou thought that this was it, his time in the world was up. The demon was trying to get into his body and then he would end up killing all of Akaashi's beloved family and Akaashi would never forgive him or be his friend again. Akaashi would hate him. Koutarou would never be allowed over again.

It turned out that it was just Akaashi's hand grabbing onto his t-shirt every time the little girl came on screen. Koutarou could understand, the girl was thirteen, Rio's age, and it was very easy to place similarities between the two girls. Who had had the idea to put a cheerleader in the movie? Why was Kanata still not reacting? Was he even human? Had he already been taken over by the demon? Koutarou kind of wanted him to turn around so that he could check if Kanata's eyes were red, but he also didn't want Kanata to turn around because _what if they were_?

Koutarou was not built for scary movies.

Apparently Akaashi was even less built for scary movies, because he could now feel Akaashi shivering beside him, and it was a warm night, despite the nest of blankets piled on Keiko indicating otherwise.

Koutarou ended up reaching for the blanket on his side to throw over both he and Akaashi from behind, wrapping the both of them up so that only their faces peeked out. "Don't worry Akaashi," he whispered. "Everybody knows that the monsters can't get you if you're under a blanket."

Akaashi can't have been too scared, because he replied with "Keiko is definitely safe then."

As Koutarou's hands were currently holding the blanket up to protect them, he had to stifle his laugh in his shoulder. When he raised his head to watch the movie again he was greeted with Akaashi smiling at him, barely visible in the light from the screen, but still there.

"Speaking of monsters," Koutarou nodded to where Kanata was sat. "I think he's one."

"Yeah, he's just into these kind of movies for some reason, but he's not allowed to watch them when everyone's awake." Koutarou could understand that rule, he already felt like he would need to prepare himself for a nightmare.

Koutarou never made it to the end of the movie. At one point he remembers feeling Akaashi shift closer to him, head dropping onto his shoulder and only the deep rise and fall of his chest letting Koutarou know that he was asleep. He must have fallen asleep soon after, because the next thing he knew the room was light and all the futons had been stacked to the side except one, where Kanata and Yuudai were still sleeping. There was no sign of Akaashi or the girls.

He stood up and stretched, letting out a long groan as he did so. He moved the futon that he had been sleeping on to the pile containing the other two, and then folded up the blankets that he had been sleeping under. At this point, Nao came into the room, but then quickly ran back out into the kitchen with a call of "He's awake!".

Now, that could have meant anyone, seeing as her call was so loud that Kanata and Yuudai were startled into consciousness at the volume of it. They didn't seem angry though, not like Koutarou knew he would have been if he had been woken up that way. Perhaps they had spent the morning trying to be quiet and now that the guest was awake it didn't matter so much.

Kanata and Yuudai raced out of the room without even looking at Koutarou. Or perhaps, he thought, there was something that the family actually did on Sunday mornings at that was why they were not shocked to be woken up.

As Koutarou considered himself to be a nice guest, he cleared their futon of the blankets and pillows and stacked it up with the others. He was about to start folding their blankets too when Akaashi came in.

"Aren't you going to come and eat something?"

"I was just-" He shook the blankets in his hands to indicate what he had been doing instead of explaining it. All that the shaking did though was throw the blankets out of the _almost_ _folding_ that he had been doing. So he sighed and threw them on the ground. Akaashi stifled a laugh, and Koutarou couldn't believe that one of his closest friends would laugh at his misfortune so early in the morning.

"Come on Bokuto-san, I promise the food is good."

"Did you make it?"

Akaashi nodded, and Koutarou felt his mood pick right back up again.

He was ready to run into the kitchen, but Akaashi grabbed his hand and pulled him out to the hallway. Koutarou was confused for a second, he head a scuffle in the kitchen, but when he was led in there was nobody there.

"What would you like to drink Bokuto-san?"

"Tea is fine."

"Great."

Akaashi poured him out a cup from a pot that must have been steeped recently judging by the steam still rising from it. Once it had been poured, Akaashi took his hand again to lead him back into the living area.

Koutarou was stunned. If it was physically possible he thought his jaw might have actually hit the floor.

The table had been pulled back to the centre of the room, the last two blankets pushed to the side, and on the table was a cake lit up with eighteen candles.

"Happy birthday!" Was a chorus that rang out around the table. Even Shiharu had appeared, who he hadn't seen at all yesterday.

Akaashi led him by the hand again to sit down at the table. Koutarou blew out the candles, and was given a knife to cut the cake. The pieces were big, he cut it perfectly for everyone present to have a piece without leaving anything behind. Only Shiharu seemed to think that it was a bit much for the morning, and cut her piece in half. He didn't mind, because she deposited the section she wasn't going to eat onto Koutarou's plate.

"How did you know it was my birthday?" He asked Akaashi.

Akaashi waited to swallow the bite he had taken before speaking. "A little kitten told me." He said with a smile.

Koutarou owed Kuroo a million thanks for what had happened this morning.

"That's why we wanted you to stay onii-san! We didn't know if you would come today otherwise!" Keiko was smiling at him from across the table, face covered in frosting from the cake.

Koutarou had celebrated his birthday with friends in the past, parties in grade school, in later years just going out to eat or going to karaoke - but sitting with Akaashi's family last night, watching movies, the sleepover, waking up this morning to a surprise birthday celebration; this might be the best birthday of his life.

"Wait, Akaashi." Akaashi hummed in acknowledgement next to him, mouth full of food. "You said you made breakfast." Akaashi nodded. "You made the cake?" Akaashi nodded again, and across the table Kanata cheered.

"Kei-nii makes the best cakes ever!"

"So we wanted him to make you a cake too!"

Koutarou almost felt like crying, why did this family keep trying to bring him to tears? "Akaashi!" He whined, he didn't mean to whine, but he did. "You didn't need to make me a cake!"

"It's fine Bokuto-san, I wanted to."

Koutarou flung himself on top of him. "Akaashi!" He may have been crying, he didn't know. "You're too good to me, I could kiss you!" He ended up biting down on Akaashi's shoulder to stop himself from talking. That hadn't meant to be said. Luckily Keiko was screaming out because Akaashi had been flattened. He was also vaguely aware of Akaashi mouthing something along his neck. Was it words? Was he just trying to get back up? Koutarou didn't know.

What he did know, was that he hadn't been crying, but his eyes definitely felt glassy.

After the mess and the magic that had been breakfast, Koutarou stayed until just before the family sat down to lunch. Akaashi had seemed slow for the rest of the morning, tired, and the only reason Koutarou had stayed as long as he had, was because Keiko wanted to do his hair for him. She did it up in his preferred style, using the black chalk and copious amounts of gel, but before she had let him go she had added red to his hair, so that he matched up too.

Akaashi and Keiko only had a slight tinge of red to their hair, Akaashi still bearing the white splash above his ear. In Koutarou's hair though, the red stood out in great contrast to the monochromous black, white and grey of the rest of his hair.

Before he left, Shiharu had said they should get another picture together, so Koutarou ended up standing with Akaashi holding Keiko, to get a picture of the three of them with their matching red hair.


	8. Chapter 8

Akaashi didn't show up to morning practice, and nobody from his house had called the team advisor with a reason as to why. Koutarou just assumed that Akaashi was still tired from football at the weekend, and then the sleepover. He wasn't too worried, he missed Akaashi at practice, missed his tosses and his praises and just him being there; but if Akaashi had family things to worried about or was simply exhausted from looking after his family, and Koutarou over the weekend, then he was content to let him off just this once.

He _did_ get worried when he checked his phone after practice. Three missed calls and one voice mail: all from Akaashi's home number. He changed quickly, not even minding that he hadn't dried himself properly after the shower - what was a damp uniform when he had missed calls from someone who had not shown up to practice with zero communication to say why? It was fine to think Akaashi wanted some time off... but three missed calls seemed like a bad omen.

He raced out of the noisy club room and headed towards the vending machines, at this time of the day there would be nobody around them, and it would be quiet.

He clicked on the voicemail first, and Koutarou heard what he thought was Keiko's voice. It was hard to tell because it sounded like whoever it was who had left the message was crying. He had to listen to the message through twice in order to piece together what Keiko - it was definitely Keiko - was trying to tell him through sobs and hiccups.

 _Nobody was at home and Akaashi was dying_.

Koutarou was ready to leave for Akaashi's place straight away. He didn't want to just barge in though, he wanted to check that it would be okay for him to do so, and also see if he could possibly double check on the whole _nobody being home and Akaashi dying_ part. It was probably not for the best to blindly believe in a hysterical five year old. For that, he was grateful that he had Shiharu's number saved in his phone.

The phone rang against his ear.

 _One ring_. No answer.

 _Two rings_. Did Shiharu not know that the life of one her her children was potentially in danger?

 _Three rings_. Could she not sense it? Weren't mothers able to sense these things?

 _Four rings_. Did the ringing of the phone not broadcast that along with it? 

 _Five rings_. It should be able to send his thoughts with it: _Koutarou is calling and it is about Akaashi possibly dying right this very second_.

Part way through the sixth set of ringing it was answered. He described the message that he had received from Keiko, and Shiharu laughed at him. _Laughed_. "I'm sorry Shiharu-san, but why are you laughing when Akaashi is dying?"

"I'm sorry Bokuto-kun. I just find it funny that Keiko called you instead of me to say that Keiji was dying."

"So... do you not care at all about the dying part?" Koutarou wilted a little inside. He had thought Shiharu would care about Akaashi dying. "I don't want Akaashi to die."

"I'm sorry Bokuto-kun, but don't worry. I don't think Keiji is dying."

"You don't think so, or you know he definitely isn't? Should I go and check on him?" Koutarou couldn't stand still, not when something was wrong with his favourite person in the world. He was bouncing around on his feet, running calculations through his mind. It was usually a twenty minute walk to Akaashi's house from school, but he could probably walk faster because he was in a rush, running would get him there in no time at all. He could probably be there in only a few minutes to make sure that Akaashi wasn't dying.

"He seemed sluggish last night and went to bed early. When I checked on him this morning he had a slight fever. It may have gotten worse and that's what made Keiko think that he was dying. I'm fairly certain he just has whatever cold I was down with over the weekend."

"So, you mean he's not dying?" Koutarou let out a sigh of relief. "That's so good, I don't know what would have happened if Akaashi had died. A part of me would have probably died too, and where would I go to hang out on the weekend?" Actually, if Akaashi really was dying, had died, that probably wasn't the nicest thing to say to his mother. "I'm sorry, that was ... not nice."

"That's fine Bokuto-kun, but if you want to check up on Keiji after school that would be fine. I'll be out late as I'm going to meet with Seiji's parents, and then we'll all be coming back later tonight. So feel free to check on him to make sure that he's not dying and reassure Keiko of that, it would actually be really helpful!"

"I can do that!" There was five minutes until class started, he could probably run up to let his homeroom teacher know, and maybe Akaashi's, and then head out.

He must have spoken his thoughts out loud.

"I said after school Bokuto-kun. Let him rest for the day and then you can check up on him afterwards. Go to class."

"Yes, ma'am!" He called out and then hung up the line. He probably shouldn't have called Shiharu that. He probably also should have said some form of farewell before hanging up, but it was too late now.

This gave him enough time to find someone is Akaashi's class to let the teacher know that he was out sick, and then he could go to class.

Nothing went into his head that day. All he remembered was doodling names into his notebook, the way Keiko had been before. Fretting that if Akaashi really was dying then Keiko would have one less name to write in her list. And Keiko had called _Koutarou_ for help, if Akaashi really did die, then _his_ name wouldn't be in her list as a brother either. Keiko would hate him. If Akaashi died, Keiko would lose two names in her list, and Koutarou would lose one of his best friends, and what had come to feel like his own little sister with the way that she played with him and coloured his hair. And they had just taken a picture yesterday of the three of them with the same red hair and smiling... and, how had it all turned so bad?

Sarukui was the first one he saw when school finally let out, as he was just in the next classroom. Koutarou was going to tell him that practice was cancelled, or maybe that it was going to just be free practice, but he didn't get to say anything. Sarukui took one long look at him and told Koutarou not to worry about practice for the day. He didn't need telling twice, he just headed to the genkan, switched his shoes out and headed in the direction of Akaashi's house.

He stopped at the store on the way to buy a few things, just in case the house's medical supply was sparse. Unlikely, everything at Akaashi's house seemed so organised, but just in case.

At Akaashi's house, Koutarou went to open the door and let himself it, but instead found it locked. How was he supposed to make sure that Akaashi wasn't going to die if he couldn't even get inside to look after him? Who would have a key? Was Shiharu, or even Seiji, the type of person to give a key to the neighbours in case of emergency? Should he go ask to check?

His phone vibrated in his pocket and cut off his rambling thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Bokuto-kun, hi, are you at home yet?" It was Shiharu.

"Yes, but I can't get in."

"I thought that might be a problem." Shiharu directed him over the phone to where they kept a spare key. Koutarou was directed to a flower pot below a windowsill, which he lifted up and found a key underneath. It was damp and covered in dirt, and what looked suspiciously like two dead spiders; but he took it with him to turn in the lock, and with the door wedged open he placed it back.

"I'm in," he declared, as if he had stepped into a vault rather than a house he had permission to be in. "Thank you."

"No, thank you for checking up on Keiji. I'll see you later if you're still there, or another time." Shiharu hung up on him before he could even attempt a farewell. Maybe saying goodbye on the phone wasn't something he needed to worry about, he didn't really talk on the phone enough to know the proper etiquette; he usually preferred mail, line, or just talking face to face.

Inside, Koutarou toed off his shoes and switched to the slippers that had become his over the last couple of months. He was tempted to call out an _I'm home_ but instead stuck to the usual _sorry for the trouble_ , just in case Akaashi was awake to hear him.

He carried the bag from the store up with him, deciding that it would be easier just to use the things he had bought rather than searching the house for wherever they kept their medical supplies.

Akaashi was asleep in his bed when Koutarou entered the room, and seeing him reminded Koutarou of what Akaashi had done for him when he had been sick. Despite not tiptoeing upstairs, he tiptoed from the room and went to grab a bowl, some cold water, ice from the freezer and then a towel. He could look after Akaashi just as well as Akaashi had looked after him.

Akaashi was still asleep when he entered the room for the second time, he sat the bowl down next to the bed, and pulled out his workbooks from the day. He didn't even remember if he had been given homework, but just looking at his maths workbook showed that he had subconsciously circled a bunch of questions, which he assumed were what the class had been doing today. He didn't know, he had been distracted, but he could start there.

He hadn't kept track of the time, but he was on question thirteen when he heard noises indicating that Akaashi might be waking up. Akaashi started rolling around in his blankets and groaning, eventually ending in him sitting up, reaching his arms along the bars above his head and stretching his back out, much like a cat would. Koutarou smiled to himself at the sight.

"Akaashi, do you want a towel?" He scooted over so that he was next to the bed and held out his offering.

"Yes, thank you." Without even looking at him, Akaashi held his hand out for the towel. Koutarou could see that his eyes were bleary and his face looked pale. Akaashi held the towel in two hands and then lowered his head into it, letting out a relieved sigh at the action.

"Tell me if it becomes warm okay!" Koutarou turned to the bag sitting next to him and rummaged through it, pulling out some medication. "Oh right, I also bought some vitamin water!"

He looked back up to Akaashi on the bed, he had pushed the towel up onto his forehead and was peeking at Koutarou through the gaps in his fingers. "Bokuto-san?" He cringed at the hoarseness of Akaashi's voice. Was his throat sore too? When Akaashi continued speaking it was in a quieter voice, as if he was talking to himself. "Am I dreaming? Why is Bokuto-san here?"

Koutarou turned to hide a laugh, thinking about how cute a sick and sleepy Akaashi was. When he had calmed the shaking of his shoulders into only a smile he turned back to face him.

"Keiko called me up this morning, crying because _onii-chan is dying_." He watched as Akaashi's face changed at the news, from something soft at hearing that Keiko had called Koutarou up, and then to slight worry that she had thought her brother was dying. "I also called Shiharu, she said you probably have a cold so I bought some stuff that would help." He smiled brightly at Akaashi, and noted the reaction in his eyes that it afforded: wide, open, soft, and then hidden behind the towel again. "So now I can look after you, like you did for me that time!"

"You shouldn't be so happy that I'm sick Bokuto-san."

Koutarou sputtered. "What? Why? I'm not happy that you're sick at all!" He pouted, he felt it on his face and he hated himself for it, but it was still there. "I'm just happy that I get to look after you, like you do for me all the time!"

"I don't look after you." Was all Akaashi said, pushing the towel up to his head and lying back in the bed. This boy, clearly did not know how much he did for him.

"You looked after me when I was sick, and you help me with my hair, and you fed me-"

"So does this mean that you are going to feed me?"

Koutarou jumped at the opportunity to help, jumped at Akaashi giving him the opportunity to help, trusting him to help. "Are you hungry? I'll go get you some food right now!" He dashed out of the room. "Also, you should probably change your clothes!" He called out as he ran down the stairs, remembering Shiharu saying that he had been in bed since the night before. Just changing his clothes would probably make Akaashi feel so much better.

The rice cooker was sitting on the bench, he filled it up with washed rice, followed by water and then paused over the machine. It was different to his one at home, just a few buttons on the side and none of them read _rice porridge_. In lieu of this fact, he took the lid off and added more water, it should help. He hoped it would anyway.

Ten minutes in and the rice cooker was bubbling over, steam pouring from the top and water cascading from the vent to run down the lid and onto the bench. Extra water had not helped, except in helping Koutarou to make a mess of the kitchen. He pulled a cloth out from under the sink and set to wiping up the starchy water from the bench as it appeared. It was a repeated motion, it just kept spilling. Five wipes and he gave up, it would probably be easier to just clean it up at the end when it wasn't going to continue spewing water out at him.

When the cooker ticked over to warm, Koutarou took off the lid and through the haze of steam saw that the meal was a _little bit_ more watery than expected of rice, not quite porridge consistency, it could do with some more liquid. Akaashi would need rehydrating and Koutarou knew just the thing to help. He made a cup of green tea and poured it over the rice in the bowl, that would do, it would help. It was what his mum made for his dad when he had spent the night drinking ... and well, that was just another form of dehydration.

He carried the bowl back upstairs, tucked against his shirt because he hadn't thought this through and the bowl had quickly become too hot to carry in his bare hands.

He knocked on the door before going in, out of courtesy. He didn't receive an answer, but still continued into the room as though he had. He almost tipped the bowl over on the floor at what he saw, but his reflexes were fast enough for him to slip the bowl from his shirt to the table before rushing over to where Akaashi was coughing and heaving on the floor.

"Akaashi?"

Koutarou hovered over him, wanting to rest a hand on his back or his shoulder or anywhere really, but also not really sure if the touch would be welcomed.

"Bokuto-san?" Akaashi lifted his face from his hands, where Koutarou saw that his eyes and his cheeks were tinged with red. "Where did you go?"

"I went to go make food Akaashi." He braved resting a hand on Akaashi's back, a light pressure, right below his neck. Koutarou could feel Akaashi relax into the touch, so he began moving his hand, slow ministrations down his spine, just to the middle of his back before moving his hand back up and repeating the action. Again, again, again.

"Why did you go? Why did you leave...?" He had only left to make food, Akaashi had said that he was hungry right? He was probably just sick of being left alone all day, maybe he just wanted to have someone around.

"Akaashi-"

Akaashi made an abrupt movement on the floor and sat up, inadvertently pushing Koutarou's hand aside. He stared up at Koutarou's face, he blinked his eyes rapidly, shook his head once, and then his face seemed to clear up. "Bokuto-san, what are you doing here?"

"I brought you some food."

At the mention of food, Akaashi turned his head to where the bowl of rice sat steaming on the table. A small smile was thrown Koutarou's way. A tiny, tired, sleepy smile, but still there, and Koutarou would take it. It was _beautiful_ and it was for _him_. "Thank you Bokuto-san." Akaashi crawled along the floor to sit at the table in front of the food and ate diligently. Koutarou watched for a while, Akaashi was eating slowly for once, taking his time to eat. Blowing on each mouthful of rice carefully before placing it delicately into his mouth. It was strange to see Akaashi acting soft around food, usually it was what made him appear the most lively.

He picked up a pen, he had been sitting and just watching Akaashi for too long. With a pen in his hand, and his workbooks still on the table in front of him, he could at least pretend to Akaashi, and also himself, that he would get more work done this afternoon.

The food was finished in silence, and afterwards Akaashi offered him a small _thanks_ , delivered with that tiny smile again.

Koutarou leaned over to rummage through the bag that he had brought, pulling out a box of cold medicine and a bottle of vitamin water. "Here, you should have these and then change your clothes and rest some more."

"Yes, Bokuto-san."

Akaashi was slow moving. He stood up and ambled over to the bed where he picked up the towel that Koutarou had given him earlier. Koutarou saw Akaashi's face twist, and wondered if perhaps it had left a wet patch on the bed - he possibly could have noticed it earlier and saved the bed from getting wet, but seeing Akaashi on the floor his attention had been diverted elsewhere.

Akaashi threw the towel into the bowl of water that Koutarou had brought up, which probably wasn't even cold any more. Then Akaashi sat on his bed and pulled his top off over his head. Koutarou watched as Akaashi reached for the towel again, squeezed some water out of it and then ran it over himself. First his shoulders and arms, then down his chest. Koutarou watched Akaashi's lean muscles flex as he twisted to wipe at his back too. Akaashi turned to look back at him then, and Koutarou dropped his eyes back to the table and pretended to be frowning over his maths book.

"Bokuto-san, can you please get my towel from the bathroom for me?"

Koutarou lifted his head back up to look at Akaashi, eyes catching on small water droplets clinging to his chest and running _down_ , _down_ , _down--_

"I'll go get it for you!" He pushed the table away from him to ease standing up, and then paused in silent horror as the rice bowl clinked worryingly on the surface. Luckily only tipping onto it's side and not breaking which honestly, he had been expecting. Note to self: _do not push on tables that have dinnerware on them_.

Koutarou rushed from the room, picked up the towel from the bathroom and ran back. He didn't know why he was in such a hurry, didn't know why his heart was beating so hard and fast in his chest; and in the little time he could have taken to calm down he had instead made it last only a few seconds, as he was now back in the room.

Walking in just in time to see Akaashi shimmy into a pair of sweatpants.

Koutarou must have made some kind of noise he wasn't aware of, because Akaashi startled and then spun around to look at him, only one leg clad in his pants and his face flushed red from the fever.

"Don't look at me like that Bokuto-san. I know what the weather is like, but I am cold."

He didn't know what his face looked like, or how he was apparently looking at Akaashi. It definitely wasn't thoughts about the weather running through his head, but if that was all Akaashi thought his was saying, then that was fine. His heart was hammering away at his ribs and he was overcome with the urge to look after Akaashi again. The same way that he had felt that morning when he had first heard that he was sick and was trying to figure out the quickest way to get to him and make sure that he was alright.

"If you're cold, you really need to get back in bed and rest."

In two long strides Koutarou was across the room to where Akaashi was standing, still ridiculously half wearing his pants. Koutarou swung Akaashi's towel around and gently brought it across Akaashi's arms and chest, then it was snatched out of his hands and Akaashi was now using it to dry his stomach and lower back.

"I can do this for myself Bokuto-san."

"Akaashi, at the moment you can't even dress yourself properly." Koutarou made it a point to look down at Akaashi's bare leg; bare, pale leg; bare, pale thigh; still uncovered. Looking back up to meet Akaashi's eyes, Koutarou was able to watch as the flush of Akaashi's face darkened - not _all_ from the fever then.

Akaashi threw the towel at his face and then bent down to dress himself. He almost toppled over when he lifted his foot up to get the pants over his other foot, but Koutarou caught him by the shoulders and steadied him. Akaashi murmured out a _thank you_ before picking out a clean shirt from his drawers to put on, then climbed back into bed. He pulled the covers up to his chin and then rolled onto his side, facing away from Koutarou.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Akaashi rolled over so that he was facing Koutarou now, already looking like he was ready to fall back asleep. "You need to take medicine and have something to drink." Koutarou opened the box of medicine he had taken out earlier and popped two pills out from the blister pack, then unscrewed the bottle of vitamin water. "Here." All Akaashi did was open his mouth. "I thought you could do things yourself?" He teased.

Akaashi pouted at him. _Pouted_. It was undeniably cute and Koutarou was completely enamoured with this sick and sleepy Akaashi.

Koutarou poked his fingers at the pout on Akaashi's lips, and Akaashi opened his mouth. Koutarou dropped the two pills in carefully to make sure that Akaashi didn't choke on them, and then held the water up to his mouth for him to drink. Three large gulps were taken, and Akaashi closed his mouth. There was some dribbling of the water over Akaashi's chin, but Koutarou was quick to sweep up the towel and wipe his face clean. He was getting better at this looking after someone business.

Akaashi rolled back over onto his side, and Koutarou thought his job was pretty much done with Akaashi going back to sleep, but he also might as well wait until someone else came home before he left. Definitely better to wait for someone else to come home, seeing as earlier Akaashi hadn't wanted to be left alone.

He was on his way to sit back at the table and maybe _actually_ get some more of his homework done when he felt something dancing around his stomach.

Akaashi's hand was poking around outside of the blankets.

Koutarou tapped two fingers on the top of Akaashi's hands, and Akaashi maneuvered his fingers so that they lay intertwined, just outside of the covers. "Don't go."

Koutarou sat against the bed, thumb stroking over Akaashi's fingers. "Don't worry Akaashi, I'm not going anywhere."

It didn't take long for Akaashi to fall asleep. Irregular, stuttered breaths taken over by deep waves of breathing that seemed to move his whole body. It was soothing, relaxing, to see the way his body moved with his breaths. It also looked exhausting, his entire body shouldn't have been needed in order for him to draw breath.

The door opened and Keiko came in, closely followed by Nao. Koutarou hadn't even heard them come home, surely they would have made some noise. He had to have been in some kind of trance while watching over Akaashi's breathing.

"Is onii-chan dead?" Were the first words Keiko said upon coming in. It reminded Koutarou of the frantic phone call that he had received, and he couldn't help but smile. He wanted to laugh, but he was all too aware of Akaashi sleeping, hand still squeezed around his own.

He saw Nao roll her eyes, although it seemed to be out of fondness rather than exasperation. He wondered if Keiko had been worried about Akaashi being dead all day, if Nao had needed to put up with Keiko worrying about it on their way home. He couldn't help but wonder if Keiko got like this every time Akaashi was sick.

"He's not dead, just sleeping."

"Is he going to be asleep for a hundred years? Did he get cursed?"

Koutarou was confused, luckily for him Nao had the answers and came to his rescue. "I'm sorry, I read _Sleeping Beauty_ to her last night before she went to sleep."

"If he's cursed you have to kiss him better onii-san! Sleeping Beauty needs the prince to kiss her and wake her up!" Koutarou squeaked and yanked his hand rather roughly out of Akaashi's, hopefully he wouldn't wake up. Keiko was looking at him with big, wide eyes, looking very serious about what she had just said. Nao was laughing quietly behind a hand at the both of them.

"Come on Keiko, lets leave onii-chan to sleep."

Nao led Keiko out of the room by hand, but then ended up dragging her out because Keiko seemed very reluctant to leave. As Nao was pulling the door closed, just before it shut, through a tiny crack, Koutarou saw her wink at him. _Wink_! Koutarou felt heat take over his cheeks and moved his hands to cover them, even with nobody around to see him flushing all the way to where he could feel it burning in the middle of his chest.

But, Akaashi's family was home now, he should leave. It was a good time to leave. Akaashi was asleep and needed to rest, and there was really nothing more that Koutarou could do for him except to leave him to get better. He cleared the table of his workbook and his pen, shoving them unceremoniously into his bag. He had probably crumpled up something important, but he could sort that out when he got home.

He swung his bag up onto his shoulder, and then went to say bye to Akaashi.

Koutarou found himself hovering over him. He noticed that the flush had come down from Akaashi's cheeks, and a hand to his forehead told Koutarou that the fever seemed to have gone down for now. He found his fingers drifting over Akaashi's face,  down pale cheeks and across red, dry lips. When his fingers moved across Akaashi's lips, Akaashi's nose scrunched up and Koutarou was quick to remove his hand.

He could see Akaashi as a sleeping beauty - unlike himself, he knew that he drooled in his sleep and that couldn't be very attractive at all - but with Akaashi the evidence was in front of him. Dark hair hanging down over his face, long eyelashes against pale skin, lips parted slightly. It was easy to consider, Akaashi was very beautiful in his slumber. Relaxed and content in a way that was rare to see when he was awake.

"I talked to your homeroom teacher today, so if you end up taking tomorrow off they'll know why. Even if you feel better in the morning you better not show up to practice tomorrow, I won't let you join in. Even though it means that I'll miss your tosses. I love your tosses Akaashi, they're so dependable and it's just like you." When had he taken a hold of Akaashi's hand? "You really are so dependable and reliable, I love that about you. I love it when you take care of me, but it was nice to be able to take care of you for once today." He gave Akaashi's hand a gentle squeeze. "I love you Akaashi, but sometimes you really need to take care of yourself too." He release Akaashi's hands, left his fingers lingering and stroking at Akaashi's palm, soft skin, whereas his own hands were covered in callouses. "Make sure you get better soon so you can come to practice again." He moved his fingers up now, stroking at the hardness of Akaashi's fingers, playing with Akaashi's beautiful hand, amazing hand. The hand that sent the ball to him, so perfectly every time they were on the court. "I love your tosses Akaashi and I miss them. I'll leave the medicine hear so feel better and I'll be waiting for you."

He stood up slowly, swept a hand through Akaashi's hair, ruffling it gently, and then left the room.

Halfway down the stairs, he just stopped.

Had he really said that?

How could he have said that?

Where had that come from?

Those _words_?

He didn't mean to say that.

He also, maybe a little bit, or a lot, kind of meant that.

Something in him had settled, he felt at peace, and Koutarou knew that it had been the words. Accidental words, true words, he hadn't even heard them in his head, hadn't voiced them to himself, hadn't felt them stirring within, but putting them out there, _quietly, gently, softly_ , into the space between him and Akaashi had seemed right, true, like they were meant to be voiced.

Nao found him there, halfway down the stairs with his head against the wall.

"Don't tell me you actually _did_ kiss our sleeping beauty?"

Koutarou jumped back and almost slipped on the stairwell. His face suddenly felt like it had caught fire, his heart was trying to escape it's cage, his lungs had forgotten their very purpose for existing. He desperately needed some fresh air.

"I gave him some medicine and I'll be going now!"

He pushed past Nao on the steps, hearing her quietly say under her breath, "No comment means yes." He still made no comment. On the way past the living area he called out goodbyes to the rest of the family that was sat there, and then he was out the door and down the road.

It took him five minutes of walking to realise that he had gone in the wrong direction for the station, but he also couldn't bring himself at that moment to walk any closer to Akaashi's house. He just continued walking on, walking into the city.

It had been a while since he had seen Kuroo, or maybe he could do some shopping.


	9. Chapter 9

Keiji spent much of the next day in a daze, which would have been easy to blame on his cold, except that he knew it wasn't the cause, and Keiji was not in the business of lying to himself. The only thing he could really do, was wish that he were a heavier sleeper, and that he hadn't woken up at the force of Bokuto ripping his hand away from Keiji's yesterday evening. He could only wish that he had done something to make his consciousness known, but then he had heard Bokuto packing up to leave and thought that if he woke up Bokuto would feel like he had to stay. Keiji didn't want that, so he had feigned sleep; but then Bokuto had _done_ that and _said_ that, and it was all just messing with his head. Bokuto had slid the words in so smoothly among other words, among normal things. Had Bokuto even meant it? Had it just been a slip of the tongue? It didn't matter what it meant because the words played themselves over and over again in his mind, so many times that he was almost certain that he had made them up - but then why would he make up Bokuto saying those words?

He found himself waking from a nap at eleven at night. Besides the time, the first thing he noticed was how much better he was feeling. Breathing no longer took so much effort, his headache had gone down, and he felt like he needed to go for a run outside for having simply lay in bed for two whole days now. He didn't go out though, just lay in bed, not really doing anything more than just wandering around his mind. At least until his stomach growled at him to remind Keiji that he was hungry, and once he had noticed, it was hard not to notice.

He slipped out of bed quietly, not wanting to wake his sister. Keiji stood up on the ladder to check on her, but found the bed empty. Keiko must have gone to the girls room to sleep - probably in an effort to keep anyone else in the house from getting sick. He appreciated it, and he would need to thank both Nao and Rio for taking care of her while he was ill.

Heading for the kitchen, Keiji decided that he just wanted something light to eat. He was hungry, but he didn't want to eat too much that he would be uncomfortable trying to get back to sleep. Some toast would be fine, and also a cup of tea.

Keiji thought that he had been quiet while preparing his midnight snack, but he must have made some form of noise. He heard a door opening, followed by muffled footsteps and then Seiji leaping around the corner with what could only be considered a growl, and then landing in a battle stance. Keiji jumped in place and ended up dropping the cup of tea that he had in his hand. It made a loud bang as it landed on the bench making him wince. Tea spilled over the surface but luckily nothing had broken.

"Oh Keiji, it's just you." Seiji sighed in relief and stood up from his pose. "I thought someone had broken in."

Well that certainly explained the fighting stance. Keiji concealed a small smile, he couldn't really imagine Seiji fighting anyone. "Sorry for bothering you."

"That's fine, that's fine." Seiji walked into the kitchen properly now, picking up the kettle and then searching for a bag to make himself a cup of tea. "I was up working and could have done with a break anyway." He poured out the water and set his cup on the bench, sitting himself down next to Keiji. "What has you up?"

"Bad sleep schedule."

"Any reason in particular?"

He keeps thinking about what Bokuto meant by those words. "Nothing beyond the fact that I keep having naps that last hours."

"Ouch." Seiji makes a face that Keiji thinks is meant to represent his feelings, it doesn't really work but he appreciates the effort and smiles back at him.

They don't talk any further, which Keiji is grateful for. He's not really up for socialising much having only just beaten his sickness and it being the middle of the night. He's glad for when Seiji bids him goodnight and heads back into his office. All Keiji really wants to do is think, but that's hard to do when someone else is around, even if they hadn't been saying anything. His head is swirling with thoughts, and _feelings_ , and he's not entirely sure what to make of it all.

At the very least, he decides that he should go back to his room so that he doesn't disturb anybody else. Waking someone up would make him feel much worse than just disturbing Seiji from work. For tonight as well, he has the room to himself. Perfect conditions for thinking and feeling and combining the two.

In the morning Keiji sits down to breakfast with the rest of his family. He gets surprised looks from Nao and Rio, he figures that they are either surprised by him being here instead of practice or surprised that he is not sick anymore. He hopes it's the former, he's already spent enough time being sick.

Afterwards they all leave together for school at the same time, Rio skipping ahead while Nao follows along with Keiji behind her. The walk is largely silent, but it's broken when Rio skips a little too far ahead. Nao turns to him then, with a smile that makes Keiji not want to hear the words that will follow.

"Have you heard anything from _Prince Charming_ lately?"

Keiji freezes in his tracks, finds himself saying "Who's Prince Charming?" before he has time to even notice the heat creeping it's way up from his chest. He should have stayed silent.

Nao's smile looks positively evil as she stops a few paces in front of him. "I asked _someone_ the other day if they had kissed _Sleeping Beauty_ and they got _really_ flustered about it."

"Nobody has kissed me." Keiji finds himself saying slowly, he doesn't remember being kissed recently. Certainly not the other night when Bokuto had been over. His words only result in Nao's grin remaining frozen on her face, and belatedly thinks that he should have thought things through further before replying.

"So you admit you're Sleeping Beauty then?" She walks a few steps further ahead, throwing words back over her shoulder. "So who's your Prince Charming then? Why did he lie about kissing you?"

"Did Bokuto-san actually say he did that?"

Nao whirls back around fast enough to let Keiji know that he had slipped up, and his mind catches up only a few moments later. Even from where she is standing up ahead Keiji can see the gleam in her eyes at being given the information, rather than just hinting at it and dancing around it.

" _Bokuto-san_ huh." She drags his name out slow enough to let Keiji stew in the information that he has accidentally handed over. Says it slow enough to let Keiji know that she had known this even without the dropping of his name into the conversation. " _Bokuto-san_ didn't say it exactly-" Keiji raced up ahead, bag slapping against his side, in order to clasp his hand over her mouth. They weren't the only ones walking to school, what if someone else heard? What if someone who _knew him_ heard? "-but I asked _Bokuto-san_ if he kissed you and then he ran away."

" _Shhhhh_." Keiji knew that she was teasing him, given the excessive use of _Bokuto-san_ 's when he had never heard anyone in his family call Bokuto that. Which made it even more important that Keiji kept her quiet. "Bokuto-san did not kiss me, even though his actions, if they are what you said, make him seem guilty of it."

"What did he do then? You were awake right, so what did he do?"

Had Nao always been so invested in his love life? Or was it only because now she knew that there was the possibility of him entertaining one? So far the most he had talked with anyone in his family about this kind of stuff was when he had first come out to them. That had been years ago and the subject never touched upon since.

"He didn't do anything."

"Yes he did Kei-nii, don't lie. He wouldn't run away like that if he hadn't done something."

"Maybe he only _thought_ about doing something." Keiji wanted this conversation to end.

"Would you have liked him to do something?" Keiji _really_ wanted this conversation to end.

"That is not what we are talking about."

"Yes it is, no comment means yes and that means that you did want him to."

"I did not say that at all."

"You still aren't saying no though, and in this context that means yes."

"When did that become a rule?"

"You _maybe_ wanted him to then, but that's close enough to being a yes."

"You keep thinking whatever you like."

"Don't worry, I will." Keiji had given up, there was nothing he could do at all really to stop Nao from thinking whatever she liked.

"Onee-chan! We're going to be late!" Rio called from up ahead.

Both of them startled and Nao pulled out her phone to check the time. Class started in just a couple of minutes, and Keiji was at least five minutes away from Fukurodani if he walked. He let out a sigh and bid farewell to both of his sisters, preparing himself to run the rest of the way to school if he was going to make it on time. It probably wasn't necessary for him to make so much of an effort, he had been sick, so surely he would be excused for showing up late. Or he could forget about it all together and just go back home and rest another day. Trying to explain to Shiharu that he still felt sick and had just wanted to walk his sisters to school didn't seem like something he really wanted to do though.

Keiji ended up in class only seconds before the teacher came in and the class rep called them to attention. He could see Takei turning to look at him from where he was sat two seats in front, he didn't really know why he kept turning to look. Was Takei mad at him for skipping practice that morning? He had been absent from school, sick for two days, surely Takei understood that perhaps coming straight back to school into volleyball practice wasn't ideal. Although, Keiji was planning to go to afternoon practice, he had really just needed that extra hour of sleep after ruining his sleeping pattern.

It wasn't like Takei was innocent of skipping practice for worse reasons, reasons that couldn't even be called reasons - being invited out to karaoke _not_ as part of a group date was not a good enough excuse in Keiji's book. Other members of the team however had just congratulated Takei, even though it never did end up with a follow up date.

As soon as the first break came around Takei was at his desk complaining - and Keiji had been right, it was about volleyball practice.

"Was whatever happened really that bad that you couldn't wait for a longer break to complain about it?"

Takei grumbled something unintelligible before shifting back off to his desk before their next teacher came in. Keiji hadn't understood much of what he was saying really, he was still too tired to pay attention to things that were not of high importance. If it was something to do with the practices then he would see when he went in the afternoon.

Takei continued to turn and glare at Keiji in the next two breaks, and Keiji was at least grateful that these times he stayed in his seat. Only getting up to come and sit on the other side of his desk once lunch finally came around.

Takei hadn't even fully sat down before he started talking again. "Okay, so," Takei paused rather dramatically to sit down properly and open up his lunch box. "Monday morning, you aren't at practice. No worries, later found out that you were sick." He pauses again with chopsticks halfway to his mouth. "Oh yeah, I actually took notes for you if you need them by the way." He smiles while chewing his mouthful of food and Keiji grimaces. It was not a nice sight. "Then in the afternoon Bokuto-senpai doesn't come to practice and Komi-senpai says that he went to go check on you." He pauses again in his eating to direct a glare towards Keiji. "By the way, practice is a mess when the captain and vice captain are both missing."

He diverts his talk then to solving the mystery about how their problem child, third year, had become captain - he was the only one who was able to get things done. Keiji sits through all of his rambling even though he's not really listening.

"Then on Tuesday, Bokuto-senpai comes in, already in dejected mode. He didn't even start playing before it happened, he just came in that way." He's waving his food around now and Keiji tracks it with his eyes, wary that at any time it might come flying out towards him. "So what I wanna know is what happened at your place because that is the _only_ thing I can come up with." The food has stopped being dangerous and is safely nested in Takei's mouth. Keiji spends a few moments eating his own food, realising that he had neglected it while watching Takei talk aimlessly. Less aimlessly now that he had gotten to where Keiji knew that he really wanted answers, but Keiji wasn't really sure that he wanted to give him any. He wasn't even sure if he had answers to give.

"So, you guys didn't get into a fight did you? Is he angry at you? Or are you angry at him?" They were definitely there now. Takei may have started rambling, but now they were finally specific questions and not him just liking the sound of his own voice. Although, if he wanted an answer he was going to have to at least pause for breath so Keiji had a chance to reply.

"It's probably your fault isn't it! You said something you you weren't supposed to right?" Takei finally paused to take a deep, heaving breath.

"It wasn't me who said something they weren't supposed to." Keiji found himself mumbling under his breath, which unfortunately Takei heard.

Takei sucked in a breath, and Keiji readied himself for another spew of questions. Instead, Takei leaned over the desk right into Keiji's face, and chanted quietly. "What did he say? What did he say? What did he say?"

Keiji pushed his face away, and instead of answering focused on stealing some vegetables from Takei's lunch box. Quietly reminding him that it was lunch time and that they should be focusing on their food rather than gossiping. Although, Keiji wasn't really sure if it was considered gossiping if they were talking about himself.

Takei sat quietly for a short moment, eyes analysing Keiji's face as he ate. "Bokuto-senpai confessed didn't he."

Keiji dropped his chopsticks, watching almost in slow motion as they unfortunately landed on the floor. So much for eating the rest of his lunch.

"I knew it! So does that mean that you guys are dating now?"

With his hand now free, Keiji reached over the table to place them over Takei's mouth. He had spoke so loudly in his excitement that some of their classmates were turning around to look at them. Takei mumbled something against Keiji's hands, but he didn't move them. "Bokuto-san and I are not going out."

Keiji could feel Takei's face slacken against his palm, and so took his hand back. Takei stared at him, jaw dropped in what appeared to be shock. "So Bokuto-senpai confessed, but you said _no_?" The questioning lilt grossly exaggerated.

"Why are you saying it like that?"

Except now that Takei was expected to say something of substance, he went back to eating his lunch. A long time passed in which Keiji sat in silence while Takei ate. The only thing he did was bend down to pick his chopsticks up from the floor and pack them back into his bag.

Takei finished eating, called out his thanks and passed his chopsticks over to Keiji. He was actually hungry, so he was grateful for them.

"The thing is," Takei started, and Keiji thought that maybe he had simply been using the time to eat to think about what to say. "The entire team knows that Bokuto-senpai is into you." Keiji made a very conscious effort to grip his borrowed chopsticks harder, he didn't want a repeat of dropping them. "All the third years pretty much think you're dating already, because you guys started hanging out a lot more after the inter high."

They had been spending a lot more time together since the inter high, but it hadn't been the post tournament haze that had led to them spending time together. It had instead been his sister getting herself into trouble - not that anybody else needed to know that.

"I knew you guys weren't dating though." Takei threw Keiji a smirk. "Because my _best friend_ would tell me if he was dating someone right?"

Keiji chose to avoid taking the bait that Takei was dangling. "We're best friends?" He asked instead.

Only Bokuto could rival Takei's quick change in expression. "Akaashi Keiji!" Takei slammed both hands down onto Keiji's desk, causing a couple of girls sitting near them to jump in their seats. Keiji mouthed an apology to them, whereas Takei seemed not to have noticed the disturbance he had caused. "How dare you. Of course we are!" Takei picked his hands up off the desk and chose to grasp at Keiji's hands, an impressive feat considering that Keiji was still trying to eat. His face was now very serious, and despite his amusement at the situation Keiji schooled his expression to match. "Akaashi Keiji, we are _best friends_ , which is very important. But what is _more important_ is that I was right and you guys were not dating this whole time." Takei smiled for a few seconds before it fell from his face. "And for some reason are not dating now, which I don't get cause I was pretty sure that maybe you liked him back."

Keiji ignored the statement. Ignored the implications that Takei had reached this conclusion. Ignored the fact that something _he_ had been sending out gave off that he liked Bokuto back.

Setters observed too much, saw too much.

"People are going to think we're dating soon if you don't let go."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Akaashi is avoiding him, of this Koutarou is very sure.

At first he was just _pretty sure_. Akaashi was quiet at the first practice he came to after being sick, it wasn't a big deal. It was to be expected.

It was afterwards, Akaashi hadn't stopped him from going home with him back to his house. Koutarou stayed for dinner and played with his siblings, and Akaashi shut himself away in his room studying and helping Nao. He could be studying too, should have been studying too, but for once Akaashi was not chastising him about it. Akaashi wasn't asking him to join in, to sit down with them and work. Akaashi was putting distance between them, and that was painful.

He didn't know what he had done.

Because it couldn't be, _it couldn't be that_.

Akaashi had been asleep and the words had felt so good leaving his mouth.

They had been so nice that Koutarou had been saying them at home, repeating them. He still liked the sound of them, liked the way that just uttering them made him feel. So it couldn't be that, he didn't want it to be that. Invisible thoughts turned into whispered words that made him feel like flying; they couldn't possibly be the same words that made Akaashi avoid him. They couldn't possibly be the reason that flying had rapidly turned into Koutarou wanting to throw himself into the ocean to never be seen again.

Akaashi was definitely avoiding him for something though, and he didn't want to think too hard about why. He didn't want it to be because of that.

It lasted so long though, so long.

And Koutarou wasn't the only one who had noticed.

Kuroo noticed, it was easy to notice. Akaashi was quiet even when they stayed afterwards for spiking practice, blocking practice, private practice. Koutarou was happy that he had at least shown up, if Akaashi had avoided him even then, it would have been too much.

Saturday morning brought along with it a breakfast in which he watched Akaashi across the dining hall. He was talking animatedly with one of the Karasuno players, and Koutarou hadn't seen Akaashi talk that much in a long time. Hadn't seen him look so happy in a long time. Not with him. He had done something, and Akaashi hated him.

They played together, their matches were fine. They synced on the court, Akaashi was consistent in placing the ball exactly where Koutarou wanted it, where he could put the most power into it. Akaashi sent it his way whenever the receive went poorly, and he _tried his best_ to _do his best_. If Akaashi could see him doing this, doing it well, would he talk to him again? Would Akaashi at least tell him what he had done wrong?

"Trouble in paradise my dear friend?"

"Akaashi hates me!"

Kuroo laughed at him, all this time of Akaashi avoiding him, made doubly apparent over the weekend at training camp, and all Kuroo did in the face of Koutarou's misery was laugh at him.

"Is the honeymoon phase over already? That was fast."

"I'm not in a honeymoon phase."

"Clearly, and with that attitude you never will be."

He doesn't want to listen to this, not when that very thing is likely to be the problem. Kuroo doesn't understand, _he_ doesn't even really understand. He just wishes he could rewind back to that day and take back everything that had transpired following Keiko and Nao returning home. Comparing Akaashi to sleeping beauty had been the trigger, and now Akaashi will barely talk to him.

"Sleeping beauty, huh?"

Koutarou needs to figure out the times that his thoughts are too loud that his mouth starts speaking them. Needs to learn how to notice them, and then to quiet them, so that they remain thoughts.

Kuroo knowing half of the problem though means that Koutarou can throw up big, sad eyes at him. Then Kuroo can feel sorry for him and when they go practice later maybe he won't try as hard. It won't be as fun, but maybe then Koutarou can start to feel good about himself. He can have a reason to be happy, even if it's false.

"Have you apologised for whatever it is that you're agonising over." Having already pierced Kuroo with his big, sad eyes, it's easy enough for Kuroo to spot his flicker of confusion. He hadn't really talked to Akaashi much, and when they had talked it was nothing close to being personal. It was the team, it was this weekend, it was organising plays and rotations. "Maybe you should do that first. Then if he's still avoiding you, you can come and cry to me."

Kuroo is smart, way smarter than people give him credit for. Koutarou is glad that he has such a good best friend. He is glad that Kuroo gives good advice, and he'll follow it, and hope for the best.

It's a better idea than his: continued wallowing in his misery until he could forget what it was like to be so close to another person that he was considered a part of their family.

He just needs to apologise.

"Akaashi!" He was nervous, nervous talking to him, he shouldn't be. Akaashi was the last person that Koutarou wanted to be nervous around, Akaashi was one of the few people he could be his complete self around. He could be a mess, he could be depressed, he could be shouting to the heavens about how awesome he was, and Akaashi would look at him with fond exasperation - Koutarou chose to believe that there was fondness in all of the expressions Akaashi showed him, it had to be there somewhere. He didn't want to be nervous around Akaashi, but even more than that, he didn't want this weirdness between them. He needed to do something to break down whatever barrier it was that Akaashi had put up between them.

"Yes, Bokuto-san?"

First step complete, Akaashi was at least talking to him and not avoiding him. Not that there was much he could have done to avoid Koutarou at this point. He had waited until they were seated on the bus together to talk. Unless Akaashi feigned sleep it would have been far too obvious that he was avoiding Koutarou. So far it had mostly been subtle, Koutarou didn't even think most of the team had noticed.

"Do you want to come over to my house before you go home?"

There was a pause, a long pause. Akaashi was going to say no.

"We need to go over everything the team learned over the last couple of days and think about what we need to work on most before the preliminaries."

Responsibility. Akaashi was a sucker for responsibility. It was his weakness. Akaashi didn't want to let people down. He would have to say yes.

Another pause, a sigh. Koutarou had him. He knew that look. Akaashi was thinking things through, and _he knew_ , Akaashi knew that Koutarou had baited him.

"I would need to let someone know."

Koutarou just held out his phone, he had known Akaashi would need to let his family know. Akaashi was coming over.

Tonight, tonight this ended. Tonight Akaashi would tell him what was wrong, and Koutarou would try to fix whatever it was that had happened. Afterwards they could go back to how they had been before, back to normal, and he would have nothing to stress over but the upcoming tournament.


	10. Chapter 10

Keiji had not been able to come up with a good excuse to avoid going over to Bokuto's house after the camp. He had asked if Keiji would help him to draw up a summary of what they had each noticed about the team over the weekend. What needed work, what plays they needed to polish up. He had tried to dodge, said that he would need to get permission to do so, but it had fallen through when Bokuto had simply held up his phone. Keiji didn't even get to call his family to ask them to say that he was needed, the screen showed that Bokuto had already asked Shiharu for him, and Shiharu saying that she would see Keiji back at home later. Keiji had forgotten that for whatever reason Shiharu and Bokuto were in contact with each other.

So instead of walking home from school when they finally get back, Keiji finds himself following Bokuto and a few of the others down to the station. He hadn't even been able to leave his bag somewhere, but here it is a plus. Keiji holds it tightly to his chest during the transit. Bokuto sits his own bag on the floor, but Keiji uses his as a buffer, keeping distance. It keeps him from knocking into the other commuters, and it keeps Bokuto from leaning too far into his space.

Bokuto being in his space wasn't something he used to think about. Bokuto barged in everywhere, had buried himself so deeply into every facet of Keiji's life, and he didn't even know when it had happened. When it had really changed. The words Bokuto had spoken were like a switch, Bokuto not just a part of his life now, not just a part of his team, not just a friend. Bokuto had become a part of his family, Keiko looks up to him and calls him when she needs help. Nao teases him, Rio remains smitten with him, and Keiji is beginning to sympathise, the boys adore him, and his parents already consider him as a son. They always had liked picking up strays.

It's so much to realise all at once. The shields had come back up, he held Bokuto at arms length, and it hurt. It wasn't meant to hurt to be away from him.

Bokuto had already made himself a home.

And Keiji finds that he doesn't mind.

Not really.

They are silent the entire way there. Keiji can hear the way that Bokuto is breathing, can almost hear Bokuto reminding himself of how his lungs works. Being conscious of it, and finding it hard to ignore. Just like this. Keiji knows that they are going to talk about it, because Bokuto is never this quiet. Even when dejected he is loud in other ways, Bokuto's noise isn't always his voice. It transforms to fidgeting, his hands and his body can never keep still, and he always fights to bring them back under his control. The silence indicates that Bokuto is thinking very hard about something; warns Keiji that he is going to need to think hard about what he's going to do as well.

He thinks he knows, he knows what he wants.

He wants a family.

His family.

And recently it's grown.

Plus one.

Keiji is greeted almost as soon as they walk into the house by Bokuto's dad. He says that it's good to see Keiji again, and that he hopes Koutarou didn't get too frantic about his hair while they were away. Keiji doesn't even have the heart to tell him that he had avoided doing Bokuto's hair. He had left it all to Kuroo. In reply he just smiles and forces a laugh, and it's enough for Bokuto's dad to walk away then, saying that he will find them some drinks.

The silence is loud again when he walks off, Bokuto only leads Keiji as far as the main room, so Keiji drops himself down to sit, and Bokuto sits opposite him. They still don't talk, and Keiji can only think that Bokuto is trying to figure out how to broach the subject, how to bring up the fact that Keiji had been avoiding him. He had hoped that it wouldn't come up, that the fact could just be glossed over, but the lack of conversation, the fact that the air between them is tense, that there is no ease in their being together, no comfort or feeling of content in each others presence; it indicates that things are not quite settled between them.

Even if Bokuto doesn't know what the cause of it was.

Bokuto is smart though, not by conventional means, but there is an intellect ticking away behind his gleaming eyes that Keiji respects.

It is probably the reason for this extended silence. Keiji doesn't think that Bokuto has been this quiet ever. He's not just rambling off the thoughts that crowd his mind, he's not rushing things. He is thinking things through, planning what to say, and Keiji admires it.

Even though this is his fault.

His avoidance had been petty. He simply didn't know how to face Bokuto. Talking with both Nao and Takei, and even receiving some unexpected advice from Ennoshita, had helped him think though. It helped, and Keiji knew, perhaps had always known somewhere but pushed it away. Who invested so many emotions in another person for no reason? He knows now though, is ready to embrace it. He knows now the bigger meaning behind his thoughts regarding that night.

It was all his fault, Bokuto had not done anything wrong, it was all Keiji's fault.

"I'm so-"

"I'm sorry Bokuto-san." It was best to cut off Bokuto's apology. Keiji didn't need to hear it, he was the one who needed to say it. "I'm sorry for avoiding you the last few days."

"Ah!" Bokuto holds up a hand to him. Keiji stops talking. "It's okay Akaashi. It was my fault, I probably did something to annoy you."

Keiji lets out a deep breath, he should say something, anything, he knows what he needs to say, but he needs to prepare himself for it. He stalls by pulling out a notebook from his bag, and a pen. Bokuto jumps up from where he was sat to run around the table and plop himself down next to Keiji so that he won't need to read the notes upside down.

It's nice to have Bokuto even this close again.

Keiji slowly pens out words, and Bokuto sits silently next to him. He could do it like this probably. He could say it if he wasn't looking at Bokuto. He didn't have to see what Bokuto's reaction was. If he said that he had heard Bokuto confess, he doesn't need to see Bokuto's reaction, he would be curious, but Bokuto hadn't been able to see Keiji's reaction. Part of him still wasn't even sure that he had heard it correctly, still thought his ears had been playing tricks on him, introspection leading him to believe that it was possibly just wishful thinking. He had been feverish at the time, Bokuto could have said nothing even close to what Keiji had heard.

Talking to other people though, a new experience for him to say the least when it concerned his emotions, had convinced Keiji that at least the feelings were real, even if the words had been fabricated.

So he could do this, he could say it now.

They were alone, they were tired from the weekend.

Keiji would be going home when they had finished going over what they had learned, and planning out what their new training menu should focus on.

Keiji could do this.

"I was awake." He kept his eyes down, tracing over characters again and again, making them almost unreadable, but he wasn't focusing on that. He could feel Bokuto turn his face towards him, but Keiji refused to look up, he couldn't do this if he looked up. "I heard every one of your words that day."

He heard a gasp of breath, but can't tell if it was he or Bokuto that it had come from. He felt like time had slowed down. He could feel Bokuto's gaze on him, golden eyes burning into the side of his face. Keiji could hear each beat of his heart, and can feel his pulse racing down where his thighs are making contact with Bokuto's.

"So you weren't asleep." Keiji can't tell what might be written on Bokuto's face at the words. His voice was so quiet, words spoken, exhaled on a breath. Lost into the world once they'd appeared. "You heard me say..." He could feel Bokuto fidget where they were pressed against each other. He didn't look though, still traced over characters that had now turned into blots of ink. "I'm sorry Akaashi."

Keiji didn't want Bokuto to be sorry. If he was sorry, that would mean that he wished that he hadn't said it, or that he wished Keiji hadn't heard. Keiji didn't want either of those. Keiji didn't want Bokuto to be sorry.

"Bokuto-san, I-"

"Koutarou! I hope you're hungry!" Keiji was cut off by a woman calling out from the entrance way. "I bought some meat for you Koutarou, I thought that you might like it after all that training and-" It seemed to Keiji that she had finally noticed that Bokuto was not alone in the room. "Oh, who's this?"

Bokuto sprang up from where he was seated, almost knocking Keiji over as he moved. He threw an apologetic look over his shoulder, and Keiji met his eyes for the first time in a while in order to receive it.

Bokuto ran over to what Keiji could only guess was his mother. "You brought food!"

She hummed in reply. "There's enough for your friend too."

Bokuto stared back at him, and Keiji was looking between the both of them. It was all well and good to say that, but he wasn't sure that Bokuto would want him to stay, and also her saying that didn't exactly equal an invitation, not from Bokuto.

Bokuto eased his thoughts, had probably read them. He let out a large smile, something bigger than what Keiji had seen from him in the last few days, and he let himself offer a smaller smile back in return. "Akaashi will stay for dinner, right?"

Keiji nodded, and then figured that he might as well introduce himself if Bokuto wasn't going to do it for him. "Akaashi Keiji, thank you for having me."

"Akaashi Keiji." She repeated the name back at him, then glanced at Bokuto who kept his big smile on for her. "Bokuto Akira, thank you for looking out for my son."

Keiji just shook his head, and then the moment ended. Bokuto took the shopping that his mum had brought in and carried it off to where Keiji knew the kitchen was, calling out for his dad on the way.

It left Bokuto's mum to sit down at the table where Bokuto had been sitting just moments earlier.

"What are you working on Keiji-kun?"

Keiji looked down at the notebook in front of him and could only register the large blots of ink decorating the page, every single character that he had drawn out traced over multiple times. "Oh, we were writing down things that we noticed from the training camp that we need to work on before the next tournament."

She nodded her head, and Keiji avoided looking directly at her because he felt somewhat intimidated sitting one on one with Bokuto's mother.

"Did you have fun at the training camp?"

"Yes. The new team that came this year was a lot better this weekend than they were earlier in the year. They also seem to be working on a lot of new things which gives us lots of ideas." She nodded her head again, but didn't say anything else. Keiji didn't like the silence, so he made himself keep talking. "I spent some time teaching a first year from another school a time attack, and was also talking to someone else about doing camera work for his movies."

Keiji needed something to do, so he flipped the page and ended up rewriting the notes that he had ruined on the previous page.

Bokuto came sprinting back into the room and sliding to a halt at the other side of the table. "Akaashi! We need to be better at detecting who the ball is going to. Hinata is going to be a lot better next time and we need to defeat him."

Bokuto hovered over the table until he was certain that Keiji had written it down.

"Who's Hinata?" His mum asked.

"Bokuto's favourite kohai." Keiji answered. "Bokuto kept teaching him attacks that he would use in the games against us and winning his team points."

Bokuto pouted, while his mum just laughed. It was a nice sound, but it made Bokuto pout harder. "Hinata is not my favourite kohai." He huffed before leaving the room again.

"You're so good at handling him Keiji-kun."

"Not really."

"Are you a single child? Eldest brother?"

"I'm the eldest." Keiji answered.

"It really shows in the way you handle him. You certainly don't act like you're a year younger than him."

Keiji felt panic rush through his body. Was she going to hate him? For not treating her son properly as a senpai? As a captain?

She laughed again, light and airy like a summer afternoon. "No need to look so panicked, I know how he can be." Her voice took on a different tone, and Keiji took it to mean more than just Bokuto's carefree personality. Took it to also mean the mood swings that could appear from nowhere, and last anywhere from a few minutes to entire weeks. "He seems to be happy around you though, so you must be doing a good job at keeping him there."

Keiji had to glance at her then, a smile was playing at the corner of her mouth. He felt warm on the inside at Bokuto's mum saying that he made Bokuto happy, and pushed away the feeling of guilt that he had not been doing so the last few days.

She rested a hand on Keiji's shoulder while she stood up. "I'll go see what the boys are up to and make sure that there's something else to eat with the meat for dinner."

Keiji felt his eyes go wide, was that something that Bokuto was likely to do? Eat a meal entirely of meat with nothing else to ensure that the meal was balanced?

She laughed at him again. "Don't worry Keiji-kun, I'll make sure to feed you properly. I don't want to send you home and have your mother worrying that we didn't feed you well enough. Besides, we definitely need to make up for all the times that you've had Koutarou over at your house."

"I really don't mind." Keiji found himself replying. "They don't mind, my family like having him around."

She smiled again, and Keiji was intrigued by the way the corners of her mouth twitched. He couldn't help but think that she was hiding something from him.

Keiji stared idly at his notebook once she had gone, wanting to draw over the characters again just to keep himself occupied and to keep his thoughts from running. He and Bokuto hadn't really got to talk over what Keiji had thought they were leading up to. Instead of that, he was now eating dinner with Bokuto and his family. Keiji cleared his things off the table, put them in his bag and then carried it all to the entrance so that it was out of the way when they ate. He was still trying to eat up time, so he hovered in the entrance way, looking out through the window at the courtyard.

Keiji jumped when two hands clamped down on both of his shoulders from behind, it was lucky that he hadn't screamed out as well.

He turned around to see Bokuto's dad standing behind him. His presence that was more than unexpected.

"I've been asking Koutarou, but he won't say anything. It's true though right?"

Keiji only quirked his brow, he did not know what he was being asked at all. Over the shoulder in front of him, Keiji could see that Bokuto had come running out to the entrance as well, waving his arms around and calling out for his dad to stop.

"You and Koutarou are dating right?"

Keiji felt like his whole body was on fire.

What could he answer?

_Keiji_ didn't have an answer yet.

This was what he had been wanting to ask Bokuto earlier.

Did he mean it?

Could Keiji take meaning from it?

Those words whispered when Bokuto had thought that no one was listening.

Words that Keiji had not been able to remove from his mind since then.

Words that had made him rethink his entire relationship with Bokuto.

Conversations that he had been embarrassed to have to help him realise that what he felt when he was with Bokuto was more than just how he felt about a friend or best friend - as Takei had been insistent on reminding Keiji that he was the best friend, and Bokuto was something more. _Something different_. Both of the above and yet neither of the above were enough to hold the way in which Keiji felt about Bokuto.

He had really just never thought much about a relationship before.

He was only sixteen, which yes, meant that he was a teenager and the prime age for being obsessed with getting into relationships. Instead life had other plans, and he had other priorities. Keiji in his mind, had decided that a relationship _might_ come later when he had figured out what he wanted to do with his life, and was ready to have someone else join him in it.

Keiji could see where Bokuto was frozen in the entrance, Bokuto's dad paying no attention to his son and his drooping expression at this question having been asked. Bokuto's cheeks were starting to darken, and the heat in Keiji's own face made him sure that his own were doing so as well.

"That is correct." If it was not, he could apologise to Bokuto later and maybe they could pretend that it had never happened. Pretend that they were playing a joke on his parents. They could go back to what they had been doing before Keiji had ever gotten sick; if they could.

Bokuto's father cheered in the hallway and raced back into the kitchen, calling out to Bokuto's mum in the kitchen.

Keiji remained rooted in front of the door. What a fitting place to be, if Bokuto hated him for what he had said, he was in the perfect position to leave. His bag was packed and ready to go and everything.

Bokuto was still standing in front of him, cheeks tinged a dark red and his eyes cast towards Keiji's feet.

"Akaashi, you didn't have to say that just because he had you cornered. I was about to pull him away."

"I know." Bokuto didn't seem to be angry at him, he looked more embarrassed then anything else. "Come on, let's go eat dinner."

The food prepared for dinner was a lot more than Keiji had expected, he still ate more than his fair share anyway. Bokuto's parents were encouraging them both to eat in order to heal their bodies from all the training they had completed over the weekend. Keiji didn't really need encouragement to eat, but he appreciated it all the same. Half way through the meal Keiji found himself sick of eating the meat, and instead ate his way through what was left of the vegetables, leaving the meat for Bokuto; who upon noticing looked at him with stars in his eyes.

This made Bokuto's parents laugh and say that they were perfect for each other.

This made Keiji vow to himself not to look at Bokuto for the rest of the meal, it was embarrassing.

After the meal Keiji thanked Bokuto's parents for having him, and left with Bokuto offering to walk him to the station.

"Sorry that my parents gave you so much trouble." Bokuto said when they had been walking for a couple of minutes.

"No, it's okay. It was interesting." Keiji found himself smiling. Dinner had been very energetic at Bokuto's house, in a completely different way than dinner at his own house was energetic. There were only three in Bokuto's family, but they managed to talk and laugh and tease all throughout the meal while also talking about each others lives and what they had been up to recently. It was interesting, and fun.

A different experience than what he was used to, but fun all the same.

"I can see why you like it at my house though." Keiji turned to Bokuto, a teasing smile on his lips. "If you're getting teased it's for a shorter time, because we have to make sure that everyone gets their share; but mostly my family worship you."

Bokuto laughed at that. "I think they were just teasing me because you were there."

Keiji watched the curve of Bokuto's lips as he laughed, and the shadows that played at his face from the streetlights. The way the lights and shadows worked together to accentuate the plane of his body.

"Bokuto-san?" He said it quietly, if Bokuto didn't hear, then he would pretend that it never happened.

"Akaashi?" Bokuto had heard, and turned to face him.

Keiji hoped that it would be okay.

Pinky first, touching at the outside of Bokuto's hand. _Asking permission_. Bokuto's hand didn't move away, didn't flinch from the contact. Keiji watched at Bokuto's face, looking for a reaction. Bokuto had his eyes down, looking at where Keiji had made the small contact. Keiji reached out with his whole hand, clasping Bokuto's hand within his own, and continued walking as if nothing was different between them.

Everything was different.

Bokuto squeezed at Keiji's hand, and continued walking next to him in silence.

Keiji was happy that it was night time and that the street was deserted. This would have been embarrassing if anyone had seen them.

"I always think that I know you Akaashi, and then you do something new and I feel like I don't know you very well at all." Keiji looked up and found Bokuto's eyes trained on his own. "I hope I can keep getting to know you better."

Keiji had to look away, Bokuto's eyes held too much intensity for him to continue looking into them.

It was his turn to squeeze Bokuto's hand now. "That goes for me too."

Bokuto stopped walking, and Keiji realised that they had made it to the station. He had been avoiding Bokuto so much, and now that things had finally worked out, he didn't really want to leave him already.

Keiji pulled up Bokuto's other hand, holding onto both of Bokuto's hands in front of his body with his own. Bokuto looked up at him in surprise.

"Thank you, Bokuto-san."

"Hey, hey, hey! No worries!" He cheered in reply.

Keiji smiled, walking up to the tracks to wait for the train home.

"See you tomorrow!" Bokuto called out, and then Keiji saw him running away, back down the road that would lead to his house.

Keiji stared at his hand. It was a warm night, but he felt cold now that his hands were empty. He felt strange now that his hands were empty. It had not been for long, but he already missed the feel of Bokuto's hands in his.


	11. Chapter 11

The energy of the stadium could be felt just walking in, and Koutarou could feel it running through his veins. He loved it, this was what he lived for. He could barely keep himself still, and it took Akaashi's hand on his arm to stop him from running off to find Kuroo before they could even check in. He had to check in, he was captain and it was one of his very important jobs, but he was too excited to think about that now. He just wanted to see his friend and then get ready to play.

It was finally here, and it was time. The moment that they had all been training for.

The moment was interrupted when he noticed that Komi was winking at him and making pointed glances down to where Akaashi's hand was clenched in the sleeve of Koutarou's jacket. _Did he know_? If he did then how did he know? Koutarou was pretty sure that Akaashi wouldn't have told him, and he certainly hadn't told anybody yet. He hadn't even said that word yet - _boyfriend_ \- and neither had Akaashi, so even though they had both agreed that it was what they wanted, Koutarou still wasn't _entirely_ sure that it was real. He knew Akaashi cared about his privacy and so-

Konoha was winking at them too, they definitely knew. How did they know?

He shook Akaashi's arm off of him as gently as he could. At Akaashi's look for having been thrown off, Koutarou just said that he would go to sign them in, he dragged his winking teammates along with him too.

They would ruin it and Akaashi would hate him.

"How did you know?" Koutarou asked them.

"How did we know what?" Konoha asked back.

"About me and Akaashi dating!" He said as quietly as he could, but it was still loud enough for Konoha to look away and pretend that he didn't know Koutarou. It wasn't going to work.

"We didn't know."

"Yeah Bokuto, we were just teasing, but thanks for telling us now!" Komi stated.

_They hadn't known_? Why had he done that? Koutarou should have ignored them or brushed them off or not thought about it at all. He hadn't told them and Akaashi probably hadn't told them, he had thought this. Logically there was no way they could have known, but now they did. He didn't necessarily think that Akaashi would want to _hide it_ , but maybe Akaashi wanted some kind of control over who he would let know first.

Then again, maybe this way was easier. This way they got to avoid the embarrassment of making it a _thing_ that they needed to talk about.

Koutarou signed up, letting the officials know that they had arrived and their starting order for the day; and when they came back to where the team was huddled up at the side of the court he couldn't see Akaashi at all. He needed Akaashi, needed to tell him that the team knew - because they would now, Komi and Konoha would delight in telling everyone else their news - so that it wasn't a shock if people talked to him and asked him about it.

Instead of continuing to loiter at the sides of the court, Koutarou led them team up to sit in the stands behind where the managers had already set up their banner to watch the first of the games.

Koutarou could see the red uniforms of Nekoma on the far court, and he wished his friends luck in their games. They had been placed in a different bracket, so they wouldn't be playing unless they both made it through the preliminary rounds. Today, their first game would be against the winner of the match playing on the court directly in front of them.

When the teams on the court moved from warming up to the beginning of the first set, Koutarou became slightly concerned about Akaashi not having appeared again. The only consolation he had, was that he had noticed that Takei was not in the stands with them either, so he was likely to be with Akaashi. They had both come to the stadium, they would be around somewhere.

During the second time out of the first set, Koutarou spotted him. Akaashi was standing at the doorway near the Nekoma court. He calmed down when he noticed two things, first that he was with Takei, and second, that he appeared to be holding hands with Keiko. Koutarou hadn't even been aware that Keiko was planning on coming to the game, surely somebody would have told him; or maybe here appearance was a surprise for Akaashi as well.

He excused himself, stood up from his seat and headed for the back of the section so that he could go down and meet with Akaashi. To his surprise, he found almost all of Akaashi's family sitting along the last row behind all the seats that had been reserved for the cheer squad to fill up later. Honestly though, Koutarou didn't know if he could say that Akaashi's family were sitting there, when half of them were standing up to see over the heads in front of them as people came and went after noting that the seats had been saved. Seeing them though, had him momentarily changing his plans in order to walk around and talk to them.

Seiji ended up seeing him as well and waved him over. "Bokuto, how is it going? Are you excited to play?"

"Yeah, we'll probably go start warming up in twenty minutes or so." Seiji nodded his head. "Akaashi didn't tell me that you were all coming to watch."

Seiji looked next to him where Kanata had started cheering for a point that had just been won. Yuudai was standing quietly next to him, while Rio and Nao sat in their seats, attention on the conversation that Koutarou and Seiji were having. "Keiko wanted to come and watch, and when I said that I could take her everybody wanted to come too." He paused as another point was scored in front of them and the boys yelled loudly in celebration. "I'll probably end up writing an article about it, so it can be counted as work too." Seiji smiled again, and Koutarou was awed over the fact that he could turn a day watching volleyball for fun into work. That Seiji would get paid for this. _Amazing_. "Keiko is with Keiji and his friend at the moment though. His friend seemed very excited to see Keiko, although I'm fairly sure that Keiko didn't know who he was."

Koutarou nodded, it was probably true. "Takei said that he saw Keiko when she was younger, when she went to watch the games in middle school before-" He cut himself off and waved a hand around instead of finishing his sentence. He was sure that Seiji would be able to fill in the rest, understand that he meant before Akaashi had joined their family. "Yeah, I wondered why I had lost Akaashi earlier, I was just on my way to find him because I saw him over near the court where my friend is playing."

Using those words as a farewell, Koutarou continued what he had been doing before, and went downstairs, walking through the halls until he could reach the court side entrance where he had seen Akaashi.

He didn't quite find them, but instead was attacked with a scream of "Onii-san!" and then a tiny body being flung at him from the side.

Koutarou looked down to see wide eyes and a bigger smile looking up at him. Looking up himself he could see Akaashi and Takei looking over at him, Takei also whispering something to Akaashi that made the latter frown while the former smirked. Akaashi said something back which only made Takei's smirk bigger.

"I came to watch onii-chan play volley!"

Koutarou gave a dramatic sigh. "I thought you came to watch me!"

Keiko giggled up at him, detaching herself from Koutarou's leg and moving to clutch at his hand instead. She walked Koutarou over to the other two. "Watching onii-chan means watching onii-san too!"

" _Onii-san_." Takei greeted him, and then laughed out loud. He was quickly silenced, and Koutarou's only thought was that Akaashi must have hit him. "Anyway _onii-san_ , I'll be going back, see you in a few."

Akaashi ignored him. "It looks like Nekoma won their first set."

Koutarou raced forward to peer through the entrance to the court and yelled out a cheer. Both teams turned to look at him and he raised both hands to wave - except that his left hand was still caught in Keiko's so he ended up just kind of wiggling it. Kuroo looked over and held both of his hands together over his head, a big yes. He was clearly confident that this game was in the bag.

"We need to warm up Keiko, so I'll take you up to where everyone else is and then we'll be playing soon."

Akaashi took Keiko's other hand and began to lead them away from the court and back to the stairs. Here Akaashi slowed down and Koutarou took over leading them, because he knew where Akaashi's family was actually sitting. Once Keiko was sitting down with them, he and Akaashi both collected their rostered teammates to head outside and start warming up.

When they moved to the back of the court to start their receiving drills, Koutarou noticed that both Keiko and Yuudai had moved to the front of the stands. They were both stood at the bottom of the stairwell, next to where the rest of the team, their cheerleaders now, and other members of their school were seated. He didn't see the others, and assumed that they were still seated at the back.

He scored the first point of the game, and was delighted to pick out amidst the roar of cheering the two smaller voices calling out for him as well.

They won both of their games for the first day in straight sets, and Koutarou felt on top of the world.

The morning of the second day they were playing in the first match. Fukurodani won again in straight sets, but the point margin had narrowed compared to the games that they had played yesterday. Their second game of the day was scheduled to be in the afternoon, a good two hour gap till then after finishing the first game; so most of the team went out to have an early lunch and then they would all regroup later. Koutarou stayed at the court, eating the lunch that he had packed for the day, and he saw Akaashi eating up the back with his family. Alternating between watching the game and talking to Seiji who appeared to be taking notes. Perhaps it was for his article, _maybe Koutarou would get to be in the article_.

He watched Nekoma's game, played directly after theirs while he ate. It went into the third set before Nekoma won, their tall first year middle blocker flinging his arm at the ball like a whip to slam them the victory.

Koutarou waved down to Kuroo once he had finished shaking hands with the other team, and ten minutes later he came up from behind to sit and eat his lunch, Kenma in tow as well.

"Who are you playing next?"

"Ouya."

"Oh that should be easy, they're a public school. We're playing Sakurazawa at the same time."

"Bokuto, you do know that Nekoma is a public school."

It was odd to hear Kenma speak up from where he was sat next to Kuroo, tapping away at a game on his phone.

Kuroo was smirking at him. "I maybe forget sometimes." Koutarou said.

They sat in silence watching the first set of the game in front of them. Koutarou watching intently, the winner of this game would be the first to make the finals round, and it wasn't that he was belittling Sakurazawa, but winning their game in the afternoon was Fukurodani's ticket to next round of games. They might even be put against Nohebi for the first round.

At the break, Kuroo nudged him in the ribs. "How is your boyfriend doing?"

His side hurt from how fast he spun around to face Kuroo, bumping back against his bony elbow in the process. "Who's my boyfriend?" Kuroo made a very obvious and long gaze to the back of the stand. Following the direction of his eyes, Koutarou saw Akaashi sitting with Keiko in his lap and talking to Seiji. " _How_ do you know he's my boyfriend?" He was desperate to know. He hadn't told anyone, and he was still pretty sure that Akaashi hadn't either. Yet Komi, Konoha, and maybe even Takei had been teasing him about it over the weekend. Now even Kuroo knew, how?

"Everybody knows." Kenma piped up again, which made the news twice as unexpected.

" _Everybody knows_?" He repeated, louder than he had meant it to be. He felt it as heads turned briefly in their direction before turning away again. "How does everyone know?"

This time he was ready and expecting Kenma to answer, Kenma knew everything. "Keiji told me."

"Akaashi did?" Kuroo sputtered. "How come he didn't tell me?" He put on an exaggerated pout. "And why did neither of _you_ even tell me. I thought we were all friends!"

"Keiji didn't want everyone to know, but his friend told other people because the team had a betting pool."

"Betting pool!" Koutarou sank down in his seat. "Don't look at me, my life is a joke to the entire team even though I'm meant to be their respected captain."

Kuroo patted his shoulder. "I respect you Bokuto."

"Only because I figured out how to solve the hair problem." It was a low blow really, Kuroo immediately retracted his hand to run it through the mess on top of his head. Koutarou regretted saying the words, he missed the hand that had been on his shoulder, it was nice to be consoled.

The second set started and they went back to watching it in silence, only commenting at times about exciting plays, until Akaashi came down to collect him and go searching for the rest of their team to prepare for their next game. Walking out back past Akaashi's family on the way down he was wished good luck by everyone there and couldn't help but to think that it was nice - even though he was certain that the gesture wasn't necessary. He was confident enough that they would win even without luck.

Koutarou noticed when they were out on the court that Akaashi's family had moved closer to the front now, everyone sitting just two rows from the barrier. It was a lot easier for them to sit up the front now, seeing as the teams that had lost had largely vacated. The only people from the losing schools remaining were a few stray groups of students with mounted cameras set up ready to record the later games.

The first set was a struggle to get through. Sakurazawa seemed to rely largely on getting points off of their jump float serve, which all the third years on the team had apparently practiced to precision. It had been unexpected, and it had taken many points for his team to figure out how to deal with it. Once they had figured it out, the first set came through much easier, and in the second set Fukurodani had dominated. Koutarou felt stronger each and every time that he landed a spike and heard what felt like his personal cheering squad calling out his name.

Post match, they left the court and went outside to cool down, and stay with their coach for a short meeting on the game. Most of the team, the cheer squad and the spectators from their school had then boarded the bus to head home. Akaashi was talking with their coach along with Seiji - an interview for his article maybe - and Koutarou stood with the rest of Akaashi's family.

"Are you the champions now?" Kanata asked him.

"Today we made it to the best four, we play again later and if we win all the games then, we'll be the Tokyo champions and get to play at nationals." He explained. Although, really to get to play at nationals all they had to do was not lose twice in a row. One victory would be enough to secure Fukurodani a place at nationals. Going as Tokyo champions would be the best though, would give them a better seeding for the tournament.

"Do you think you'll win the Tokyo games?" Nao asked.

"We won them in the summer tournament, so hopefully we can." That was all he could really say. Fukurodani was a favourite to win, but the teams they would be playing next time would also contain spikers in the top three, better than him. And despite having won the Tokyo tournament at the inter high, it had been Itachiyama who beat them when it counted at the national stage. Nothing in sports was ever guaranteed, Fukurodani had won the top spot to get to nationals, and Itachiyama had won the next time they faced each other. Koutarou could only trust in his team and his training, and that all of it would come together when it was needed.

Akaashi and Seiji came back to where Koutarou was, and after a whispered goodbye Akaashi left with his family, leaving Koutarou to head back inside and watch the Nekoma game. He assumed it was still ongoing as no other groups had left while they had been outside.

He didn't get to see much. He had made his way inside and only just managed to sit down and look towards the scoreboard when a cheer resounded and told him that Nekoma had won. The scoreboard told Koutarou that it had taken three sets, and that it had been a fairly close game, Nekoma barely winning out 26-24. Perhaps he really shouldn't look down on public school volleyball teams so much, except that Nekoma was also a public school team, so it didn't really count.

Koutarou stayed to watch the one last game that was going on over on the far court. It was easy to see how it had been going on for so long. Sakusa was sat on the bench, and the teams almost seemed to be going for a record on rally length. In the ten minutes that he had been watching, a mere twelve points had been scored. The defensive capabilities of both teams seemed to be getting a workout, as they both worked exceptionally well to keep the ball from kissing the court. It didn't looked real though, Itachiyama seemed almost to be toying with the other team, using the game for practice rather than what it was - an official match.

He didn't stay to watch the whole game. It was obvious who would win. When Kuroo messaged that he was finished with his team meeting and they were just waiting on Koutarou now, he left.

"How do you feel?" He greeted when Kuroo was in his sights. "Only one more game until you're out of the tournament!"

Kuroo didn't answer him, simply waved him onto the bus headed back to Nekoma and sitting down next to him before saying, "I dare you to say that again."

Koutarou, despite what some other people might say, valued his life and chose not to partake in that particular dare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was fitting that it was Bokuto's spike to end the game, the first spike back after his break in attacks. It was always a gamble when he got into those moods, but Keiji found himself more often that not timing them these days. It probably - _definitely_ \- wasn't fair on Bokuto, but if Keiji could predict or induce Bokuto's mood swings to appear at a certain point in the game, they were usually beneficial. So far the success rate had been one hundred percent. He tried not to think about what would happened when it eventually failed, but they also only had the spring finals now to play together before Bokuto left.

Keiji tried to think about that even less.

For now his strategy worked, and it had led to this. The echoing roar of cheers from the stands behind them; the heat and sweat and noise of his team huddling together on the court. Jumping, celebrating, screaming. Slaps on the back and one suspiciously too far down, and the ruffling of his hair.

Keiji was so happy to have been able to be a part of this team, so happy for them to once more have won their way through to nationals. To be able to once again play on that court with this team.

It took a long time for the officials to convince everyone to leave the court, then once in the change rooms they cheered and celebrated some more. Only finally readying to leave when the coach came in to say that he would take them all out for a celebratory meal.

This of course led to fighting over where to go. Keiji didn't participate in this, instead he was content to watch it all unfold. Bokuto and Komi were the loudest, Komi wanted seafood and Bokuto wanted barbecue. Keiji was pretty sure that seafood could be barbecued and that the fight was essentially easily solved, they were both passionate in their debate though, and Keiji didn't want to intervene.

He only tapped away at Bokuto's phone to let Shiharu know that they were going out to get food with the team.

Eating passed by quickly compared to the fighting over where to eat. In the end they had been limited by where they could go due to the number of them, and that they had been arguing over where to go for so long that most places would be starting to fill up. So after everything, they had ended up at a family restaurant. Splitting the team up between tables so that they would all fit.

It was the first time that Keiji had been out with the team without anybody being asked to leave - even though they were loud and rambunctious over their victory. He wondered if their coach had paid off the staff, or maybe even just asked if they could please give the team some leniency with their noise given the occasion.

Bokuto was with him on the way home, still talking on and on about the game as if forgetting that Keiji had been there too, playing with him. He was talking all about how he had felt when he had pushed down the winning shot when his phone rang.

"Yo!"

"This is bad!" Keiji could hear enough of the voice to know that it was Kuroo who had called.

"What's bad?"

"I can't eat all of this."

"That sounds like the opposite of bad."

"There are _so_ many Bokuto!" He sounded desperate. " _So. Many_. Kenma took out all the good ones and left me with the rest. There's too many Bokuto." A pause. "Bokuto? You there?"

"Yeah, what do you want?"

"You have to help."

"Why does Kuroo-san have so much food?" Keiji found himself adding in.

"Akaashi?"

"Hello Kuroo-san."

"You can help too, it's really bad. Bokuto said that you have a big family right? You can take some with you, just please come and save me."

"What exactly do you need help with Kuroo-san?" Bokuto had moved the phone now, holding it to the space between his and Keiji's heads. They had to walk closer in order to both hear and talk, but Keiji didn't particularly mind.

"Kenma won a years supply of lollies and just took what he wanted and dumped the rest on me. There's way too many though, I'll die if I eat them all. You guys need to help me by taking some of them away."

Keiji had already told Shiharu that he would be back late, and hadn't given a specific time. So he nodded at Bokuto and that was that. Instead of continuing home Bokuto turned them around and they made their way over to Kuroo's house. Keiji had never been before, but Bokuto seemed to know the way on his own.

He held out his phone to Keiji once they were seated on the train. "Do you need to let your family know that you're going to be late?"

Keiji took the phone. There was no harm in telling them that he would be out later still. "I told them we were going out to dinner, but I guess I can tell them that we're going to Kuroo-san's now, just in case something happens." He handed the phone back when he was done. "How much is a years supply of lollies anyway? What kind of competition did Kenma-kun win?"

"It was probably a game thing." Bokuto replied, kicking his feet out from under the chair and swinging them in front of him. Keiji placed a hand on his leg to stop him from moving, and Bokuto dropped his own hand on top and threaded their fingers. "One hundred maybe, two hundred? You aren't supposed to eat sweets everyday so it can't be that many. Kuroo is probably just angry that Kenma took all the good ones."

Bokuto stopped walking in front of an apartment door, knocked twice, and then let himself in without even waiting for someone to call from inside to that that it was okay. Keiji stayed outside, even as he heard Bokuto call a greeting out to someone inside. A woman came into view and greeted Bokuto, and only then did Keiji walk in and call out his own greeting. "Ah Koutarou, is this who I've been hearing about?" She nudged Bokuto in the arm, causing him to blush. "Are you staying for dinner? I'm about to go out and buy some food."

Bokuto appeared to start drooling, so Keiji intervened. "We just ate out with the team, thank you for the offer though."

"So polite, Koutarou you should keep him."

Kuroo came running down the corridor then, perhaps drawn by the noise of people talking in the entrance. "Mum, go! They're here to take the lollies."

"Oh, thank you so much." She said, placing a hand to her chest, and Keiji was suddenly wary of the amount of lollies that might be present. She left then, and Kuroo led them into the house.

They were led through a door to Kuroo's room, and Keiji saw on the desk two giant paper bags, easily the size of his torso, and filled to the brim with brightly coloured lollies.

"Is that them?" Bokuto asked, running over to check the bags. "I thought there would be more with the way you were complaining."

"Kenma took half, and I already gave some to the team after yesterday. I figured I would wait until you guys finished to ask if you wanted some." Kuroo pulled one bag down to the floor and they all sat down around it. "What flavours do you like? You can have anything."

"I really don't mind."

"Pomegranate? Fig?" Kuroo asked, holding the respective flavours up to Keiji.

"Those are, _interesting_ flavours. Are there not any regular ones? Like lemon or something?"

"I don't know, Kenma sorted through all of them before dumping these ones on me. Some of them are really strange."

Keiji peered over the bag, almost up to his chin now that they were seated on the floor and packed full. "How many are you trying to get rid of?"

"Take the whole bag. There's like almost five hundred in there probably. You can split it between you if you like and I'll still have that whole other bag."

"I'll get cavities," Keiji found himself murmuring. "We all will."

"Split it between your family then, how many of you are there?"

"There's ten of us at home."

" _Wow_! Your parents must really love each other a lot."

Keiji could see Bokuto making some strange motions with his arms at Kuroo, but Keiji just smiled and said back, "they do."

He pulled the bag towards him and started sifting through it, they really were strange flavours: guava, cheese, tabasco, kumara, pickle. What kind of competition had Kenma entered? Were the flavours that he had taken actually good ones, or just good for what they seemed to be offering?

Bokuto found the tabasco one, and then a handful more of the same flavour. He held them out to Kuroo. "I dare you to eat all of these!"

Kuroo pulled a face. "You have to eat whatever I give you afterwards."

"Deal!"

Bokuto unwrapped all of them, and held them out towards Kuroo. "Say ah!" To Keiji's surprise, although it really shouldn't have been, Kuroo dropped his head to eat them off of Bokuto's palm. He sucked on them for a moment, chewed for a few seconds, and swallowed; making a sour face the entire time.

"Was it good?"

"Not at all, I'm going to die because of that." Kuroo groaned and rolled over, holding onto his stomach. "It's painful."

Bokuto chuckled, sitting back down next to Keiji and digging through the bag again. Keiji picked one up himself, unwrapped it and dropped it in his mouth without looking at the flavour. He didn't want to know what to expect, and it was packaged food, no matter how bad the flavour sounded or how bad it might taste, it legally had to be edible.

It didn't taste edible at all.

It tasted like a dusty room.

It tasted like a construction site.

It must have shown on his face.

It could have just been the hand he held up to his mouth, hoping to spit it out without anyone noticing.

"What flavour did you get?" Bokuto asked him.

He flicked the candy to the side of his mouth with his tongue in order to talk. "Flavour?" Dust, dirt, construction. " _Clay... maybe_?"

"Clay?"

It was only Bokuto looking, who kept throwing glances back in Kuroo's direction anyway. He could probably spit it out without looking bad in front of Kuroo. Kuroo was distracted with rolling around on the floor in pain, and Bokuto seemed to be caught between watching Keiji's distraught face - he could only presume by the way Bokuto kept looking at him - and Kuroo writhing on the floor.

If he timed it right, neither of them would need to see that he had spit it out.

Except that Bokuto turned back to Keiji for longer this time. Kuroo was on the floor with his back to them. He would just have to do it now, Bokuto wouldn't care too much if Keiji spat it out.

He didn't get to spit it out.

Bokuto shifted closer to him at the same time that Keiji opened his mouth to get rid of it. Instead of anything leaving though, his mouth was invaded by Bokuto's tongue. It was warm, it was nice; and Keiji felt his body freeze where he was sat. _Bokuto's mouth was on his_ and they were _sitting in Kuroo's bedroom_ and _his mouth tasted of clay_ and this was _not at all_ how he had expected their first kiss to be.

_Was it a kiss though_?

Bokuto's tongue searched out Keiji's mouth. He responded with his own, listening intently for any indication that Kuroo would turn around. He ended up accidentally catching the candy with his tongue, and then it wasn't in his mouth anymore, and neither was Bokuto. He was pulling away, and Keiji opened his eyes - _when had he closed them?_ \- to see Bokuto putting some distance between them as well.

"I'm definitely dying!" Kuroo called out, rolling over and facing towards them. "Bokuto, get me some water!"

"This is your house, we're guests!"

"You made me eat them!"

Bokuto smiled and got up anyway, leaving the room. Keiji was left there with Kuroo, still complaining on the floor although much more quietly now that Bokuto had left. He must have been acting it up to make Bokuto feel bad. He ignored Kuroo and watched where Bokuto had disappeared, his gaze lingering on the gap in the doorway.

Bokuto had taken the candy with him too.

Keiji's candy.

The candy that had been in his mouth.

That Bokuto had stolen from his mouth.

_Did that count as a kiss?_

"Akaashi, what's wrong?"

Keiji really had to get better at holding himself together when he was with Bokuto. He had been good at it once upon a time he was sure, but ever since Bokuto had become a part of his home he had become lax in holding his thoughts inside. He needed to go back to doing so, especially when a third party was involved who was good at reading faces.

"The lolly..."

"Huh?"

"Bokuto-san took it."

Kuroo slapped the floor. "I thought it was something bad! What flavour was it? There's heaps in here." He said, rifling through the bag at Keiji's feet.

Keiji let Kuroo pull out one of every flavour he could find, lining them up so that Keiji could pick out the one that Bokuto had stolen.

"It's fine, really." Kuroo had pulled out what looked like at least twenty different flavours to display for him.

"Maybe it was something Kenma missed, sorry Akaashi."

"It's fine, really." He found himself repeating.

He couldn't tell if he was fine though.

_Had that been a kiss?_

_Did that count as a kiss?_

Had his first kiss really been in Kuroo's bedroom, with the owner present, while he had a lolly in his mouth, that tasted of clay?


	12. Chapter 12

He may have heard Akaashi mention when his birthday was, once, a long time ago. Now as it drew closer to the date it seemed to be all that Akaashi's family could talk about when Akaashi himself wasn't in the room- not that it had actually hit him what they were actually all talking about until Akaashi took the dishes away after their meal and went to wash them. He had pulled the door shut between the kitchen and where they were all seated. Nao had spoken up as soon as they could all hear the water start running.

"Mum, what are we doing for onii-chan's birthday?"

This had led to Keiko shouting out, "it's onii-chan's birthday soon!" After which everyone scrambled to get her to talk much, much quieter, followed by Keiko pouting because, "I can't believe I forgot onii-chan's birthday", before she was tearing up and starting to cry.

Koutarou had tried to lighten the mood by saying that he didn't even know that Akaashi's birthday was coming up. It didn't have the desired effect of cheering Keiko up, instead the whole family stared at him in open mouthed shock, and Keiko started crying harder. "Now onii-chan is going to think that nobody likes him!" Not what Koutarou had been going for at all.

First they had to calm Keiko down; along with everyone vowing to _never_ tell Akaashi that his sister had been crying in the room right next to him without his knowledge. Then luckily it was Shiharu who spoke next. "His birthday is on the fifth, we thought you might have been told this already." He had not, and that was only a few days away! How was he meant to find the perfect present for Akaashi when he only had a few days in which he had to come up with one and figure out how to get it?

Inviting Akaashi to his house for a movie sleepover the way Akaashi had so sneakily done for his birthday just didn't feel right. For starters, Koutarou was sure that Akaashi would want to spend time with his family, and inviting _himself_ for a sleepover again didn't exactly seem like a gift for Akaashi. So, if he was going to have to _get_ a gift, what gift should he get?

What would Akaashi like?

Akaashi was his boyfriend now, which meant that the present Koutarou gave had to be good, or else Akaashi might not want to be his boyfriend anymore. He would want to date someone who knew what he liked and got him good presents on special days.

_Wait_ , did this mean that Koutarou also needed to get him a present for Christmas? He had never thought much of Christmas before except for going out with his class for karaoke and maybe a present exchange. Now though, he had a boyfriend, and he would need to think about organising a date for Christmas and _another_ present.

He vented as much to Kuroo when they met up after practice following Koutarou's frantic mail of _I need help or Akaashi is going to leave me_ ; but Kuroo had just laughed at him. Which was not helpful at all, he didn't understand at all the _severity_ of the predicament that Koutarou found himself in.

"I'm sure Akaashi will be happy with whatever you buy." Was all that he had really said about it. And Koutarou knew that, but he wanted Akaashi to _actually_ be happy with the gift, not just happy to get something at all. Why couldn't Kuroo understand that?

His next solution was to ask the volleyball team, and they had good ideas, but nothing that was special. Why would he buy Akaashi clothes? Why would Akaashi want a new volleyball? Not special at all. Komi had quietly suggested new knee pads at one point, but Koutarou knew that Akaashi had only just gotten new knee pads over the summer break, so he wouldn't need any new ones already. The team had dissolved into giggles after he had explained that though, and so instead he had left the gym pouting because they were obviously teasing him about something but he didn't know what.

After practice the next morning, he had spied Akaashi walking to class with Takei, and _of course_ Koutarou should have been asking Takei, because he was the one who had known Akaashi the longest.

At lunch Koutarou made his way down to the classroom, waved to the both of them eating lunch together, and at Akaashi's invitation to join them he muttered out some excuse he hadn't thought through and ran out of the classroom dragging Takei with him. He hoped that Akaashi wouldn't be too mad at him for stealing his friend away, but it was an emergency. Akaashi would understand, eventually.

Takei had told him that Akaashi would like music, which did seem like a good idea. Music could be special. He could buy an album from Akaashi's favourite band, or maybe he could make Akaashi an album of songs that he liked and that maybe Akaashi would like too, or songs that reminded him of Akaashi... but that might be too embarrassing and people would definitely ask what he had gotten Akaashi, and Koutarou didn't know if he was ready to say that he made a mixtape of songs that made him think of Akaashi. That would be embarrassing. Too embarrassing. Even he had a limit.

His parents told him that he should do something meaningful, but Koutarou didn't really know what that meant. It didn't directly help, and therefore it was useless advice.

It was when he was sitting in Akaashi's living room with his three youngest siblings playing arts and crafts to keep them away from Akaashi and Nao studying upstairs that he had his breakthrough. He should have asked Akaashi's family what to do straight away, they knew him the best, and then he would have had more than three days in which to prepare Akaashi's gift.

It was all thanks to Keiko.

He really should have thought of talking to her first, he would know for next time. He wondered if she was equally as useful for asking about Christmas presents, and where Akaashi would like to go for a date...

"What are you giving Akaashi for his birthday?" Had been the question to start it all.

"A picture!" Keiko had cheered back at him.

"Picture!" Akane and Aoi had echoed back at her.

The twins held up their drawings, Akane's showed what Koutarou guessed was her and Akaashi holding hands, Aoi's drawing was of the whole family.

"I give him this picture, and then we take a picture in the morning!" Keiko showed off the picture she was drawing, and then mimed taking a photo with her hands. Bokuto was instantly transported to the bottom drawer in Akaashi's desk where he kept his polaroid camera and a box that could barely be called a box that was full of pictures.

Akaashi liked to take photos. Koutarou could work something out with that.

Keiko's drawing was of her, Akaashi, and an owl that they were both holding onto. It was cute.

Koutarou talked to Shiharu when she sat down with them to rest from preparing dinner. Firstly to ask where Akaashi got the film for his camera from, then asking if she thought that Akaashi would notice if his camera went missing for a couple of days. Keiko helped with that problem by saying that unless they were doing something special it was usually her asking for pictures to be taken - so if she didn't ask for the camera and didn't go to look at the pictures then Akaashi wouldn't notice. The last thing Koutarou wanted to know was if Akaashi would mind if the pictures no longer lived in the box. Nobody had been sure about that, but he had been told that what he was doing was special and from him, and so Akaashi probably wouldn't mind. In a way, that meant that both his parents and Kuroo had been right, they just hadn't been able to give him an idea.

He left late that night, waiting until after Akaashi had gone to bathe so that he could take the camera without worrying about Akaashi walking in and asking what he was doing. When Akaashi came back from the bath and Koutarou said that he had to go, Keiko giggled from up on her bed with one finger held over her lips. Akaashi gave them both a strange look, but did not ask what it was for. What a good brother, Koutarou couldn't help but think, playing along so that his baby sister could believe that she was actually good at secret keeping and surprises.

At practice in the morning he took Yukie aside and asked if she could _please, please, please_ , take pictures of them practicing. He also stressed that this was a secret and to be sneaky. She agreed so long as Koutarou bought her a snack at lunch. Koutarou owed her a lot more money than just one snack, so he considered it a good deal.

He hadn't counted on the shutter sound of the camera, and ended up spending most of the practice directing Akaashi's attention to himself whenever he heard the shutter go off.

His next plan involved Takei. Takei would help, he would always help if it involved girls. Especially if it involved girls being interested in him. Takei was central to the plot, and it went off without a hitch and Takei never even knew that he had been the best actor that Koutarou had ever seen. Koutarou hadn't told Takei about the plan, but Takei had carried it out exactly as it went in Koutarou's head. So, when enough time had passed, he went into the classroom and dropped a snack onto his desk too, the same as Yukie had received. He deserved it.

After practice in the afternoon he told Akaashi that he would pick Keiko up and take her out to eat so that Akaashi could focus on helping Nao study for her entrance exams.

Keiko and he did go out to eat - in the city. He hadn't told Akaashi that part, he didn't think that Akaashi would like the idea of Keiko in the city with only Koutarou for supervision, but what he didn't know couldn't hurt him. He treated Keiko to any food stall that took her fancy, mostly because he wanted to spoil her because she deserved everything that was nice, but also because she had been the one to give him his idea. So if Akaashi liked his present, then the credit had to go to Keiko, but he didn't want to tell anybody that.

They went to the art store where Koutarou bought some things for the present, and also ended up buying Keiko a box of pencils. He didn't really know what was so special about these particular pencils, but Keiko seemed excited about them. Their shopping trip finished with them getting a drink at a cafe. Despite the cold outside, Keiko ended up ordering a drink that seemed to be almost entirely ice cream. Koutarou asked the waitress if she could please take a picture of them together - when the picture developed it had him smiling up at the camera while Keiko was ignoring it and looked to be enjoying her drink. He probably should have done that too, he knew that Akaashi preferred candid shots.

Keiko excitedly showed off her new pencils to everyone when they got home. When they all sat down to dinner and Akaashi heard about it the look he gave Koutarou was so full of emotion that he nearly pulled him in to kiss right there at the table. Was it really that the pencils were that special, or that he just liked Koutarou buying a present for Keiko?

He had meant to ask at a later time, but forgot all about it in his effort to keep his present for Akaashi a secret.

After dinner, Nao talked Akaashi into helping her study in her room for a change. Koutarou didn't stay long, with Akaashi out of his own room he was able to get in, take the box of photos from the drawer and take it to hide in the genkan before going back upstairs to say goodnight to Akaashi.

At home that night Koutarou stayed up late. It was like putting together a puzzle because he wanted to make sure that the photos were in order, but he had no real way of knowing.

When he voiced his concerns the next day, whilst trying to take pictures of the family without Akaashi knowing, Rio offered up her line address and said that she would try to help him. After all, most of the pictures were from when Akaashi had started living with them.

Working through the pictures that night, Koutarou thought that Rio was a lifesaver.

He was amazed at how many pictures there were. Some were just of everyday things, and some were very obviously special occasions. He remembered some of the stories that Keiko had told him when he had first been shown them, and wondered how many comments Akaashi would have to add to them. He must have some at least, he would have a better memory of the events than Keiko would have. He wondered if Akaashi would mind if he asked.

Koutarou was also mesmerised by the pictures in the box that he definitely hadn't seen before. He was in a lot of these himself, and he came to the conclusion that Akaashi's preference for candid shots must have led him to taking photos when people weren't aware of it in order to preserve the moment more.

Although he wasn't sure when the picture showing the both of them asleep had been taken. He liked it though. Was there a way to copy out polaroid photos?

The night before Akaashi's birthday, he was invited to stay the night again. Shiharu was the one who asked this time if he would like to stay. Koutarou was stuck on answering, because hadn't he thought about this earlier? Him staying over seemed like too much, it seemed like a gift for him, not a gift for Akaashi.

Then again, Akaashi was amazing. He must have known what was going through his head, because Akaashi leaned over, took Koutarou's hand and with a squeeze of it said, "You should sleep over again, we'll watch movies." and really was there anything else he could have said after that?

Except there was something he should have said, he should not have stayed, because he hadn't brought the present with him. He didn't trust it in his bag at school because it was too important, and now he didn't have it for Akaashi's birthday. He was such a useless person.

Seiji caught on to his dilemma, and promised that they would sort it out with the others being none the wiser.

So Koutarou stayed up late that night, keeping himself awake through the movies they watched - the boys warned him that it was girls movie night, but he didn't know what to make of that. First Rio's movie, _she too loved a lie_ ; the boys cringed through most of the movie and Koutarou may have understood what they were warning him for - shoujo and romance and drama. Nao picked a movie that he was sure was about football, but it also had a lot more blood and violence than he had ever thought could possibly be involved with the sport.

Most of them settled in to sleep after that, Keiko and Yuudai having fallen asleep during the second movie. Koutarou hoped that they wouldn't have nightmares. He was already scared for himself, what if the next heckler at one of their volleyball games or their opposing teams fans came to fight them after a game? He was captain, but would he be able to protect his team?

Akaashi picked the last movie, and he wondered why the boys had told him to beware of girls night if Akaashi was also picking. As Akaashi set up the movie, Kanata sighed and threw Koutarou a look. "He always picks this movie, every single time." Was it a bad movie? Rio and Nao didn't seem to be as resigned to watching it as Kanata was.

It was an animated movie that Koutarou thinks he might have seen once when he was little. He doesn't remember much, but he certainly recognised the blue alien living in Hawaii.

It was also obvious why Akaashi would like it. Working hard to keep a family together after having it fall apart - it was very fitting.

Soon after the movie finished everyone settled in to sleep, and Koutarou was able to get up and find Seiji in his study. Seiji drove him home so that he could pick up his present for Akaashi and also bring a fresh undershirt for his uniform the next day. He also left his sports bag at home seeing as they wouldn't have weekend practices again until after the winter break.

Back at Akaashi's, he settled himself onto the single futon left and went to sleep.

He was woken up by loud screams of what turned out to be Akane and Aoi. He didn't particularly appreciate it, he preferred to be woken up on his own time, but nobody else was complaining and Koutarou figured that it was a part of life at this house. It was also nice to wake up and see Akaashi grumbling over on his futon underneath a pile of children: Akane, Aoi and Keiko all screaming at him for it being his birthday. The other four seemed content to sit up and laugh at Akaashi in his pile, Koutarou joined them in their laughter.

Shiharu and Seiji came into the room afterwards carrying two cakes in, and everyone rushed to push the futons out of the way and drag the table into the centre of the room.

"I can't believe you actually condone eating cake for breakfast." Koutarou had to say it. Yes, it was a special day, but his parents had never allowed him anything other than a proper breakfast at home. Even on his birthday that was not something that would change. Akaashi was so lucky.

Koutarou ate the second, larger cake with most everyone else. Akaashi ate the smaller cake, sharing with Shiharu, Seiji and Nao. He had found out that it was coffee and cinnamon, and he avoided it along with the others who had good taste - apart from Keiko who wanted some but was apparently not allowed. Koutarou wanted to know why, he had given her coffee before, was it really that bad?

After breakfast Keiko ran upstairs and came down with Akaashi's photo box, giggling all the while. Koutarou was given a few knowing glances, but nothing that made him think that Akaashi had caught on.

Akane and Aoi handed over their presents, Akaashi smiled as he received the drawings and patted them on the head in return. Keiko passed her drawing over and Akaashi pulled her into his lap for a hug; which was apparently the cue for Nao to take out the camera and take a picture of the both of them. When it film came out of the camera, Keiko took it and passed it over to Akaashi with another big smile. Akaashi whispered a quiet thanks to her, and she remained seated in his lap. Kanata and Yuudai handed over lucky charms from the shrine, so that they could win the spring tournament when it came around in a couple of months. Rio and Nao had made hair pins, one with a volleyball and one with an owl - Rio had smirked when she handed hers over - so that Akaashi could pin his hair back when he studied. Seiji and Shiharu gave him a simple present, a large box of polaroid film.

Koutarou noticed that even if the gifts were small they were all greatly personal, and so of course Akaashi would have loved anything that he was given. He wouldn't need to worry so much for all of his future birthdays.

Koutarou was embarrassed now that it was time to hand his gift over. He wasn't even the one to hand it over. Shiharu put away Akaashi's camera into the broken box and then pushed it towards Akaashi. "You can put your new pictures in there too if you like."

Akaashi pulled the box towards him, and when he took the lid off he froze.

It was a good few seconds before he moved again. His hand reaching in slowly to pull out the two books that had been placed in there instead. "What happened?" His voice was quiet, as if not sure what to make of the change to what was probably his most precious possession.

Koutarou had never felt so nervous. What if Akaashi didn't like what he had done? What if he hated it?

His heart was hitting hard at his chest, and his body was held tense with nerves. He was feeling more and more like he was about to step onto the court against a big team rather than seated comfortably around a table with what had become some of his favourite people.

Akaashi opened the first book, and Koutarou could hear his breath catch when he realised what is was.

Red and sturdy.

Koutarou had moved each of Akaashi's old family photos into the album. His hope was that this way they would preserve better than being left loose in a shoe box. He found himself holding his breath as Akaashi flipped through the first few pages, watched as a laugh caught in his throat at something in the album.

Akaashi turned to him, eyes glistening, and he didn't want to think about why. "Did you do this?" Koutarou could only nod. Akaashi took it and continued flipping through the pages. The rest of the family watched on in silence, Keiko also pointing out pictures in the folder as he went.

He closed the book and turned to Koutarou again. "I'm impressed that most of it is in order."

Koutarou smiled. "Well it was easy to tell, because you kept growing."

A light flush made a home on Akaashi's cheeks, and soft laughter bubbled from the others around the table.

Akaashi hesitated over placing the book on the table before deciding to set it down on the floor next to him. Koutarou could see the cake crumbs littering the table, and considered it a smart move.

He pulled out the second book, larger than the last, also red, but lighter in colour.

Akaashi opened this book and immediately his face was overcome with a smile. It was easy to know why. Koutarou had tried to make a scrapbook for Akaashi, just as a way to store his pictures better. The thing was that he wasn't so good at the whole creative thing, and so he had just bough different patterns of paper and stuck in the photos according to the timeline that Rio had given him.

Most of the pictures were of Keiko though, of course Akaashi would smile.

He flipped through the pages slowly, spending a moment on each page. "How did you get these ones in order Bokuto-san?"

"I helped him!" Rio said, raising her hand as she spoke.

"I see..." Akaashi's voiced trailed off, and he turned quietly through more pages. "So you were all in on this." Akaashi looked up at them all, nothing accusatory in his voice or his eyes. Perhaps he was just amazed that he hadn't noticed. "I did hear a camera that day." This time Koutarou could feel his own cheeks heating up. Akaashi had gotten to the page that he had splattered with the pictures that he had gotten Yukie to take at training. Koutarou just ran his hand roughly through his hair and laughed loudly. He had heard the camera then, but he hadn't known what it was for and that was fine. "Takei? This was taken in the classroom."

Koutarou kept up with rubbing at his hair. "I may have had some help for that one."

"You got Takei to keep a secret?"

"No, Karin did." At Akaashi's questioning gaze he continued, "the girl who took the picture."

Akaashi stared at him for a few moments, his face closing off a little. "Bokuto-san I had no idea you could be so sneaky." Akaashi flipped the page over, stony face coming into full effect. "All of you are so sneaky."

He was answered with laughter.

He flipped over another page, and then slammed the book shut. Koutarou watched the flush that built up on his cheeks.

"Thank you Bokuto-san." Akaashi flashed him a smile and Koutarou felt like his whole body had suddenly figured out how to beat gravity. He felt like he was floating, _Akaashi had liked his present_.

Akaashi put the book back into the shoe box, tucking in the picture that Keiko had given him earlier as well as the drawings that he had received, the new polaroid film, charms, and his hair pieces. "Thank you everyone."

With that said and done, Shiharu and Seiji moved to clean up the table and everybody else got dressed ready for school.

While getting changed with Akaashi in his room, Koutarou had to ask.

"Why did you slam the book shut? I liked that picture."

Akaashi was facing away from him, and still didn't turn around to look when he answered. "It's embarrassing. I didn't know that you had seen that picture."

Akaashi came to stand in front of him, still not making eye contact, and just fussing with Koutarou's tie. "Why not Akaashi? It's cute! I don't even know when it's from but don't you think it's cute?"

Akaashi stilled with his hands still on Koutarou's tie. "It's from the morning of your birthday. Our first sleepover." Akaashi stretched up to lay a small kiss on his mouth, and Koutarou was too stunned by the suddenness of it to react. By the time that he realised what had happened Akaashi was already at the door. "Shiharu-san took it and the flash woke me up." Then Akaashi was out the door and Koutarou could hear him making his way downstairs.

Koutarou smiled at himself in the mirror behind the door. His birthday; that was a special picture from his own birthday and Akaashi had kept it and been too embarrassed to show him.

Akaashi had kept it in his special box, a picture of just the two of them.

It made him feel so happy.


	13. Chapter 13

Akaashi was laughing at him. He wasn't actually making any noise; but as they walked home through the falling snow, hands clasped together and swinging through the space between them, Koutarou could tell. Akaashi was laughing on the inside, and he was laughing at Koutarou. He was doing it quietly, silently; barely noticeable except for the fact that Koutarou had learned how to read Akaashi, how to see through his public face to what he was really thinking. Akaashi would probably say _nothing_ though, if Koutarou asked why he was laughing at him.

It wasn't fair, he just wanted to know.

Koutarou hadn't had a good day and school, he had just been hoping that following school his day would get better, that it would end better, but instead he had Akaashi laughing at him so the hoping hadn't lasted very long at all.

"You know," Akaashi was smiling at him, for real, which meant that Akaashi had probably read him too and knew that he was sulking over not knowing what he was laughing at. "Your hair is the same colour as the snow." He reached a hand up to drag through Koutarou's hair, and he was conflicted. He liked the gesture, the feeling, the touch, but not the reason why it was there. "You can't even tell that there's snow in your hair by looking, but I can feel it."

Koutarou shook his head, dislodging loose snow and Akaashi's hand in the process, and sped up, walking ahead. Akaashi was still laughing at him, quietly again. Following along with their hands intertwined, Koutarou wasn't going to let go, no matter how upset he was.

How could he? Had Akaashi always been so mean, or was this a special case? Akaashi knew that he was sensitive about his hair. It had just been so cold that day that Koutarou had insisted on taking a quick, hot shower before walking home. It had helped, it had warmed him up, and he had washed his hair so that he didn't need to worry about it later, nobody was going to see anyway because it was after school and everyone had gone home... and then Akaashi had been laughing the whole time because of his white hair matching up with the white snow.

Unfair. Not nice at all.

Akaashi dragged him into the house when they arrived, and Koutarou stamped the snow off of his shoes in the genkan before sitting the take them off. He pulled on _his_ slippers and rushed into the house calling out an "I'm home" and then wondered if it was possible to hate himself any more in one day. Why had he called that out? It wasn't _actually_ his home no matter how often he was over here and how homey it felt to be here.

Koutarou took himself upstairs to Akaashi's room to maybe try and suffocate himself in his pillow. What a useless person he was: he didn't have normal hair and he couldn't remember basic greetings. What was the point of him?

A while later Akaashi came upstairs, saying that nobody was home at the moment, and because of the snow Seiji said that he would pick Keiko up from school, and for them to stay warm. Akaashi then disappeared to go have a quick shower to warm himself up.

Akaashi must have also turned the heater on when he left, because soon enough Koutarou felt himself warming up enough to peel off the jacket that he was still wearing. He cringed a little at the dampness it had left behind on the covers of Akaashi's bed, hopefully he wouldn't notice. Koutarou dragged the heater closer to the bed so that it could potentially, _hopefully_ , dry out the covers before Akaashi could notice, and then he sat down with his back leaning against the bed and the heater beaming hot air towards his thighs. This was nice. This was perfect.

Akaashi came back into the room, changed into sweats and a hoodie and sat to work on his homework. Only Akaashi would think of doing homework straight away after getting home. Koutarou didn't want to do anything at all, he settled for watching Akaashi's hand move across the pages and the crinkle that sat between his eyes every time he paused to think.

He left Akaashi to it when he heard noises from downstairs that meant the others had gotten home. Everyone was bursting with energy, which made Koutarou want to run around too. So when Yuudai suggested going outside to play in the snow, he agreed. Shiharu and Seiji made sure that everyone was dressed appropriately, and he ran upstairs to grab his jacket again, which was much warmer for having been in the heated room.

Akaashi stayed inside when he went out with everybody else to play in front of the house. They started off making snow bunnies, but after Kanata threw one of them at Yuudai it turned into a war. Shiharu and Nao had moved inside then, while the rest of them stayed outside throwing snow around until it started coming down harder and the world had taken on a grey tinge through the haze of snow.

When Seiji called a final end to their playing outside, Koutarou followed everyone as they trickled inside, kicking off their shoes in the genkan and trying to avoid all the puddles accumulating there while they changed into slippers. On the table inside a large pot was sitting over a flame, and Koutarou couldn't stop himself from being excited about hot pot for dinner. He immediately ran upstairs to bring Akaashi down to wait for the food with everyone else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bokuto was face down on the bed when Keiji made his way upstairs, in the same position that he had been in earlier when Keiji had come into his room when they first got home. This time though, he didn't know why. As far as he was aware Bokuto had cheered up from his teasing after having fun outside, and at dinner there had been no issues that Keiji had noticed. Had something happened while he washed the dishes and fixed them some drinks?

Keiji closed the bedroom door behind him and set the hot chocolate that he had made down on the table. He sat on the bed next to where Koutarou was face down in his pillow. He felt guilty for a moment, thankful that Bokuto had clean hair so as not to stain his pillow. He shouldn't be happy for that though, he should be worrying about whatever it was that had made Bokuto want to smother himself in Keiji's pillows.

He lay a hand down in the centre of Bokuto's back, spreading his fingers and pressing down for a second, before relaxing and just resting his hand there. The soft touch there to let Bokuto know that he was here. "Bokuto-san, what's wrong?"

"Don't talk to me Akaashi," his voice was muffled through the pillow. "I'm just a burden on you and your family."

That was certainly news to Keiji, he had never heard any indication that anyone in his family felt that way about Bokuto. Keiji was sure that they loved him, cared about him, enjoyed having him here in their home, possibly even thought, like Keiji, that Bokuto had become a part of their home. "Did someone say that you were a burden?"

Bokuto mumbled something into the pillow that Keiji wasn't able to catch, and then, "No, but Seiji said that the snow fall had caused the train lines to close, and that I should stay here for the night."

Keiji didn't understand why Bokuto was treating that as a bad thing. Keiji liked when Bokuto stayed over, like waking up to his presence. "What's wrong with that Bokuto-san?"

"I already spend so much time here that your family probably hates having me over, and now I have to stay overnight too."

"Do you not want to stay?"

Bokuto finally turned himself over on the bed, his face was red from where it had been pushed into the pillow. Keiji relocated his hand to the centre of Bokuto's chest where he could feel the thrum of his heartbeat. "Of course I want to stay." He didn't look at Keiji, spoke instead to the top bunk.

"Then stay." Bokuto chose to be difficult over the strangest and simplest things sometimes. "I want you to stay too." Most of the time, Keiji never wanted Bokuto to leave.

Bokuto turned his head to look up at him with sad eyes. "You're not sick of me yet?"

Keiji paused briefly, had he given Bokuto a reason to think this? "I'm not sick of you. Have I done something to make you think that?" Bokuto was a lot to deal with, especially when he got like this, but Keiji wasn't sick of him, didn't think that he would get sick of him. This part of Bokuto was as much a part of the Bokuto that Keiji had fallen for as the Bokuto with boundless energy was.

Bokuto shifted his eyes back to the bed above him, also bringing up a hand to play with Keiji's. "No, but I've been told before that I'm exhausting to be around." Bokuto went silent, but Keiji had a feeling that there was more to be said. After a small period of time in which Bokuto focused on linking and unlinking his fingers with Keiji's, he continued. "And today I was talking to some girls in class about you," he snuck a glance at Keiji at the words, as if embarrassed to admit that it was something he had been doing. "I was talking about how I come to your house a lot, and they said that it was probably a burden on you and your parents, and that you were all just too nice to say no."

Keiji let out a low sigh, he could understand that feeling, knew that feeling all too well. "You are not a burden Bokuto-san, everybody in this house loves having you here." It was funny, to repeat words that he had heard himself so many times before.

"You're just being nice."

"I'm not just being nice." He really needed Bokuto to know that, it was the truth. Nothing sugarcoated at all. He wasn't just talking to make Bokuto happy, he was saying what he saw. "My parents especially wouldn't think that you're a burden. You help around the house, you help with keeping track of everyone, and you play with everyone. It's really helpful. There are ten of us in this house, _eleven_ , and it can be exhausting to make sure that everyone is happy and having fun, but you're so full of energy that it fuels everyone to enjoy themselves. You're infectious."

Bokuto peeked up at him again, for longer this time. "Really?"

"Yes." He put some more pressure behind where his hand was rested, used it to bolster himself, Bokuto really didn't understand the affect he had on people at all. "Also, maybe my parents are too nice to say no, but you may have noticed that they have a thing for taking in strays. If they weren't like that, Keiko and I probably wouldn't have even been able to stay together. Looking after six children that aren't their own is probably a much bigger burden than you being the occasional visitor." Bokuto still hadn't taken his eyes off of him. "And Keiko," he couldn't choke up now, he needed Bokuto to hear this, needed Bokuto to know how much he was truly appreciated in this house; by Keiji, by his family. Their family, as a part of the family. "Keiko never gets close to anyone, she only has one close friend, and even though she doesn't remember ours, she cries whenever people talk about their parents. Then she met you, and she called you onii-san from the day that she met you." Keiji smiled at the memory, of when he hadn't known that it was Bokuto that his sister had brought into their house, at how that day had really kind of changed their lives. Chance meetings somehow paving the way to all of this. Keiji wouldn't be here with Bokuto, like this, if it hadn't been for that day. Small moments can do so much.

He knew that, had known that before. This one had led to a happier ending.

"I used to think that I was a burden here too."

Bokuto sat up from where he had been lying down, dislodging Keiji's hand, brought both of his hands up to stroke at Keiji's cheeks. _Oh_ , when had he started crying?

"You aren't a burden Keiji."

He tried to smile, but it didn't hold long. "I know that now, but I used to think I was. Especially when we first moved in." He paused, took a deep breath. It had taken time, adjusting to a new home, to a new family, to a new life. New routines, new feelings, knowing that he would never see those people again. That Keiko would never know them. That all he had now were memories and photographs to chase away the loneliness, the ache in his chest. It had taken time, and then his knew family had grown around them, grown to include them. Keiji had settled into his new home, tried not to think of himself as a burden in someone else's life. Tried to think of himself as a part of it, living, eating, contributing in his own way. "Sometimes even now I have moments where I think I am... but, I do know better." He smiled, for real this time, something that held, and Bokuto smiled back at him in response. "Don't ever think that you're a burden in this house Bokuto-san, that's the last thing that any of us would ever think about you."

Bokuto was beaming back at him, sun bursting through the clouds of the grey day; and despite it having set his emotions ablaze in the process, Keiji was happy that Bokuto was happy again.

He picked his hands up to run through Bokuto's hair, he always looked so much softer when his hair was down. It was jarring, it made him look soft, and yet Keiji knew that Bokuto was anything but, knew that Bokuto was a power waiting to be unleashed. Using his hands, and pulling the strands between his fingers, he pulled Bokuto's hair up into it's usual style, and then moved forward to kiss him.

Bokuto pulled him in, a gentle touch to the back of Keiji's neck, meeting him halfway. His mouth was warm, and Keiji could taste the dinner they had shared on his tongue. He could feel his own pulse, moving, racing, spiking beneath Bokuto's hands on his neck. Warmth spreading out from beneath his fingertips, chasing away the cold from the day. Filling Keiji with warmth, letting his blood run hot beneath his skin. Bokuto's hands moved down to spread over his back, and Keiji moved to sit in Bokuto's lap.

He felt a noise escape the back of his throat at the change in position. At feeling Bokuto's entire body there now, warm, solid, heart thudding in time with his own.

Keiji let go of Bokuto's hair, moved his hands down Bokuto's chest. Hard, smooth chest; down to hard muscle, and then they moved up again. His hands reaching under fabric and traveling up warm, smooth skin, muscles twitching under his touch, up to where he could feel Bokuto's pulse racing through his neck. Bokuto lifted his arms from Keiji's back, held them in the air, and Keiji let his hands roam up further, up into his hair again, then separating their lips and pulling off all of Bokuto's upper layers in one movement over his head. Blazer, shirt, and then giggling as Bokuto's tie caught got caught up around his throat. Keiji had always berated Bokuto for not wearing it properly, and yet it wasn't even loose enough to be of use in moments like this.

Bokuto took the tie off himself, and Keiji threw Bokuto's clothes to the floor behind him, then brought his hands back into Bokuto's hair. Soft, fluffy from when he had washed it earlier, he pulled on the strands at the nape of his neck, pulling down, tilting Bokuto's face up to connect their lips again. His hands moved down, Bokuto's strong, smooth back there for him to explore, following lines of muscle, rippling as his fingers dug into the skin, feeling each dip and curve of muscle and bone.

" _Koutarou_." Keiji whispered the name into his mouth, and Bokuto, _Koutarou_ , lay back, lowering himself down onto the bed. He looked soft, gentle, and Keiji followed the movement with his own body. His senses were disoriented, he knew that it was cold and yet all he could feel was hot. _Koutarou's_ skin was warm, distracting Keiji from the cold air around him, making Keiji run hot, _too hot_.

He was pushed, rolled over and suddenly _Koutarou_ was leaning over him, whispering Keiji's name against his ear before kissing down his neck. Warming up Keiji's skin with his mouth as he chased each new button that was undone.

Keiji bit his lip, kept his voice low; only the sound of heavy breathing escaped, panting hard against Koutarou's mouth. His heart was racing, thudding, reaching out for more. He felt light, _so light_ , like he could float away. There was only Koutarou's warm weight above him and the wet air on his face to keep him grounded.

He could hear his heart beating loudly in his ears, and then his senses were focused on where he could feel Koutarou pulsing around him, Keiji's heart racing to meet him. Koutarou's rough hands gliding over him, and his tongue in Keiji's mouth to block out the groan he felt in his throat.

Koutarou fell forward onto him, and Keiji ran his along his spine.

"We're going to need to wash up again."

Koutarou giggled into his ear, followed by a low hum. Keiji squeezed at his shoulders, and then Koutarou was pulling himself up and throwing him a towel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koutarou ended up staying for the entire weekend. Keiji only once more had to remind him that he wasn't a burden on the household. Although it was a lot easier to convince him of this when Shiharu kept talking about how she was able to get more work done around the house now that she didn't have children asking after her at all times of the day. When she had said this to Koutarou, Keiji had simply smiled at him from behind her, and mouthed out an _I told you so_ to him.

Koutarou spent most of Sunday outside with everyone again, leaving Keiji in peace to help Nao with her coursework, and to work on his own assignments too. Keiji didn't even think about asking Koutarou to get to work on his as well, after all, he had already been confirmed for his volleyball recommendation, so he had put off all of his homework in the meantime - focusing only on passing his classes and nothing more than that. He didn't see the point, and Keiji wasn't going to force him into aiming for better grades if he was already content in where he stood. Nao seemed to appreciate the quiet that everyone being outside in the snow afforded, and Keiji definitely appreciated it. The blanket of snow covering the street also blanketing the noise as they played and fought outside.

As dusk fell, Keiji left Nao to her work and helped Shiharu with making food in the kitchen. Making sure that when everyone settled around the table to eat that he pointed out what parts of the meal he had cooked, which in turn led to Koutarou proclaiming that those parts of the meal were his favourite. Keiji didn't believe him for a second, Shiharu had prepared and cooked the beef, which was his _actual_ favourite, but the sentiment was nice all the same.

Keiji washed the dishes after the meal with Nao helping him as the others cleared the room up to prepare space for futons and another night spent watching movies. Apparently something that was to become a regular thing when Koutarou stayed over - the fuss that had been made when the younger ones found out that Koutarou had stayed the night before and that no movies had been watched had been immense. Thus they had been allowed to have a sleepover night today despite having school in the morning.

Keiji woke up Monday morning to somebody's phone ringing out an alarm. It was Koutarou's, but the owner had not stirred. Keiji picked the phone up and pressed at a button on the side to make the noise stop. Now that he was awake, he didn't turn back to sleep, instead he took a moment to marvel at Koutarou, curled up against him with his head and fluffy hair tucked under his chin. It was cute, charming, and yet now that he was awake and taking in their positions Keiji wasn't sure how he had ever managed to sleep like that. Koutarou's legs were heavy where they tangled over his own, and his hair was tickling across his neck, moving with each of Koutarou's breaths.

In the end, Keiji couldn't stop his hand from moving down to push Koutarou's hair away from his skin. It didn't even wake him up when Keiji took the opportunity to stroke his hands through the hair, soft and light as it was without the gel to glue it up.

It didn't last long.

The alarm rang off again and this time Koutarou actually moved to stop it himself. Koutarou turned his head up and Keiji was greeted with a smile and bright eyes... Koutarou had woken up between the alarms, had let Keiji run his hands over him freely. Koutarou stretched out and pressed a soft kiss to Keiji's temple before getting up from the floor. Keiji winced at the sensation of blood rushing back into his legs, and simply sat up, taking in the room and noting that only Rio seemed to be awake.

"What's the time?" He asked, making an effort to keep his voice low so as not to disturb the others from their slumber.

Koutarou turned on the screen of his phone and flashed it at Keiji. There was still half an hour until he would usually wake up for school.

The feeling had returned to his legs, so he stood up and dragged Koutarou up the stairs behind him. "If you pick up your uniform we can go to the bathroom and I'll do your hair."

Koutarou raced to the bathroom ahead of him, and Keiji took the time to pick out the chalk and hair gel from where Keiko kept it with all of her colouring supplies. He also spent far longer than he should have searching for his uniform to put on, before remembering that he had hung it up in the bathroom after it had been washed so that it could dry.

Keiji stalled in the doorway of the bathroom, having opened the door to Koutarou sitting on the lip of the bath in his school slacks and nothing else. Koutarou offered up a wide grin when he noticed Keiji in the doorway, noticing his hesitation. "Do you like what you see?"

Keiji said nothing until he had a stick of chalk in his hand, and Koutarou had three streaks in his hair. "Of course I do." He finally replied, bending down to press a long kiss to the centre of Koutarou's chest and then standing straight back up to get back to doing Koutarou's hair.

"Akaashi!" Koutarou whined, reaching up with his hand to reach under Keiji's top and stroking up and down along his sides. Keiji ignored it, continued to colour in Koutarou's hair. When he put the chalk down to reach for the gel Koutarou followed him and tried to pull his top up and off.

"Koutarou-san, stop playing or I won't be able to do your hair." It worked well enough to stop him from trying to undress Keiji, but his hands continued to glide along at his skin beneath his clothes.

When Koutarou's hair was satisfactorily spiked, Keiji collected his uniform to change. He was helped out of his clothes by Koutarou, who it seemed had simply wanted to return the kiss to the chest. The press of his lips against Keiji's skin had caused a shiver to run through his body, but he tried to ignore it in favour of putting his uniform on so that they wouldn't be late to school.

He had to fix up Koutarou's tie for him. "I don't think I've ever seen you wear your uniform properly." He commented as he also tucked Koutarou's shirt in for him.

"I think I might have worn it properly to the opening ceremony in first year." Koutarou replied, looking at his reflection in the mirror. "I look like a real student!"

"Koutarou-san, that is how the uniform is supposed to be worn."

"Akaashi!"

Keiji led Koutarou down to the kitchen, where he was happy to find Shiharu up and already working on breakfast: frying eggs and transferring bread into the toaster. He left Koutarou in the kitchen to start eating while he made sure that everyone was awake.

After breakfast he ushered Keiko and Koutarou to the genkan, while he rushed upstairs to collect all of their bags. He paused at the bottom of the stairs on his way back down, because he could hear Koutarou and Keiko talking to each other.

"Are you going to take onii-chan away?" Keiji sounded tearful, he didn't like it.

"I'm not taking him away, we're just going to school."

"Yuuna-chan said that when her sister did _that_ , she left home and lived with her onii-san." Keiji almost felt like his heart was going to break. Keiko thought that he was going to leave her alone and live with Koutarou? That was what it sounded like.

"I won't take him away, he's your big brother."

Keiji could heart the smile in Koutarou's voice; soft, the smile that lit up his eyes but didn't take over his whole face the way some of them did.

"What about you?"

"I'm your big brother too, of course. I promise that I won't take your brother away." Keiji figured that this was as good a time as any to make his presence known. He came down the last step, and in the genkan he could see Koutarou knelt down with his arms engulfing Keiko. "I just want _Keiji_."

He halted in the hallway.

"Is that when-"

"Yes."

"Okay." Keiko's voice was small, smothered against the front of Koutarou's jacket. Koutarou lifted his head up from Keiko's hair, smiling up at Keiji from behind her. Keiji was focused on that smile, and the way that it made his eyes gleam, the only word that ran through his mind was _gold_.

Koutarou's eyes shone golden when he smiled.

It was strange seeing the two of them there. Koutarou and Keiko, his golden eyes and her wide smile aimed at him from the doorway; so much like the first time Keiji had seen them there together.


	14. Chapter 14

 

 

 

Koutarou liked when he got to work at the shrine in the park, even if like today, it was only to help them with cleaning. Considering that it was only cleaning, Koutarou hadn't expected the _shinshoku_ yelling at him to purify himself completely, but it turned out that rinsing the colour from his hair and having the water drip down his back was nice and cooling while he worked away under the scorching sun. At least he got to work outside, he could sweep and clean and enjoy the surroundings that the park offered him, full of nature and views that were so much nicer than the smell and sound of the fishing district. If only he had been born to this shrine, he might have come to enjoy his inheritance so much more. He did love it, just hated that his inheritance laid itself in physical attributes that the other shrine leaders liked to fawn over. At home he could hide, his parents didn't mind the dye and the gel; elsewhere he got yelled out for denouncing his beliefs. He was fairly certain that at the main shrines they just liked to play up his spiritual connections in order to sell more charms and fortunes.

The park was worth it though, cool water trickling down his spine, trees whispering to each other through the breeze, all the people walking past with smiles on their faces, and the animals that had made themselves a home of the surrounding area. Koutarou even preferred the cats here, they were so much friendlier than the ones around his house that only seemed to skulk around in order to steal their offerings. The birds were his favourite, they flew through the trees and over spring Koutarou had watched them build up nests, seen the young ones hatch and grow, seen them fluffy and then feathered, seen them waddle around the grass in groups. They felt like his own pets, his own children, even if their home was not his own. One day when he took over maybe he could try and convince more birds to live there... he didn't know how he could do this, but he wanted to at least try.

He had rushed here after school today, there was no practice, and the other third years had guidance meetings for their futures, a scary thing they all said, Koutarou wasn't scared for his own. He had spent time already discussing the possibility of a recommendation, if he got one, he would try his hand at university volleyball and hopefully get a degree, if he did not get the recommendation, he would go straight to work, finally time to properly learn about what he was to inherit and carry on, and then pass on to his own white haired children when the time came.

Today he was not there to bolster their budget though, he was simply one of many youngsters brought in to help with cleaning up after the festival that had been held over the weekend. He had worked the goldfish scooping, as he usually did. He always had more fun playing with the children who came to have a turn, and he wasn't really supposed to but if they ever had too much trouble Koutarou would scoop a few fish out for them himself. He hadn't been caught for it yet, or maybe he had but they knew better than to place him in the shooting stalls, and knew _far_ better than to place him in charge of food. He was pretty good at scooping fish, he used to go home with at least ten of his own from festivals before he was placed in charge of actually running the stall. His parents had probably convinced everyone to give him the job so that he could stop over filling their ponds at home.

He had pulled a good lot for his cleaning. He had missed out on picking up all the rubbish that was yesterdays duties, and he hadn't been rostered on to clean up the actual buildings, wiping down walls and properly cleaning things up. All he had to do was sweep the floor clean; clear up the floor from leaves and petals and the small pieces of rubbish that hadn't been collected and then get rid of it all. It was one of his favourite chores to do, mostly just the one that was the least stressful to deal with. Suiren was the poor girl who was stuck with cleaning up everything after Koutarou swept away the debris, and if he didn't hate her job so much he might have offered to help, or to switch. But getting rid of stains from spilled food and beverages was tiresome and the caretakers of the shrine didn't like anything to be even a shade off from it's usual colour. They were far too strict here. Instead of helping her, he just pitied her quietly as she came in to clean what he had recently cleared, and he moved onto the next section.

He had only been working for half an hour, already distracted and ready to leave, when he saw a group of children from the school nearby stroll past. One girl stuck out to him, petite, fluffy dark hair and pale skin, she walked separate from the rest of the group, and the teacher leading them down the path seemed not to have noticed. Koutarou could see that she had been distracted by a cat, it's dark fur almost the same colour as her hair. She kept reaching out to touch it, the cat kept walking away from her outstretched fingers, and then she would follow. Eventually the cat allowed her to catch up to it, allowed itself to be petted. Koutarou was happy for her, that she had finally gotten to pet it, he knew that cats could be temperamental at the best of times when it came to human interaction. He almost felt honoured to be in the presence of someone who the cat had chosen.

The problem was, that he was watching, had enough experience in him to see what was happening, but was too slow to stop it from happening. He could see, the flickering of the cats tail, speeding up, twitching erratically at the ends, ears sinking closer and closer to the back of it's head, pinned flat against it's skull. And Koutarou could only watch helplessly as the cat sunk back and then pounced at the girl. He didn't see where the cat hit, only saw a brief struggle before he dropped his broom to run over to the her, at the same time managing to chase the cat away.

Red, that was all he could focus on. _Red_. Covering her knees, her arms, her face. The cuts across her arms and face appeared to be from the cat scratching at her, but the scrapes on her knees seemed to be from where she had slipped on the pavement to get away from it.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He called out to her softly. She was crying, shock from the cat's sudden attack and probably also pain from the scratches. Koutarou didn't want to scare her any further. "Cute little girls shouldn't be crying. Can you be brave for me?"

She nodded her head, taking two long breaths, sniffing hard, and then reached for his hand. Koutarou let her take it, and she gripped on tightly, pulling herself up from the floor.

"Are your friends still around or are you going home now?" He didn't really know what to do now that he had talked to her. If she knew where her friends had been going Koutarou could take her there, otherwise he didn't know where the group that she had been a part of had gone. The only other thing he could do was take her back to the school.

"I'm going home when onii-chan picks me up."

"When is he coming to pick you up?" Koutarou hoped it wasn't immediately. He didn't want to explain why the girl was on her own when she should have been in a group. It would look suspicious. Squeezing lightly at her hand, Koutarou indicated for her to follow him back to the shrine. Perhaps he could get someone else to walk her back to the school, tell whoever was there that she had gotten lost; it would be better received than if he went to take her back. Even in his work outfit he just looked like someone from the docks come in to the city for the day, not like someone trustworthy to be walking around rescuing little girls from stray cats.

"He picks me up after practice at four thirty." Koutarou took in the information, that was still a good half hour away, and that was if her brother was on time. Koutarou took her inside, ready to ask someone if they could take her back to school, and he could get back to work.

"I want to go home!" Was all the girl said when Koutarou went to pass her off. Clinging onto his hand and hiding behind him instead of taking the hand of the woman who had offered to take her back. "I want to see onii-chan!" She wailed when Koutarou tried once more to pass her off, crying now into her hands as well as Koutarou's that she refused to let go of.

"Maybe you should just take her home." If he took her home he would have to leave early. He would have to leave _now_ , and he hadn't finished up all the work that he had been meant to do. "Don't worry about anything here Koutarou, it's better to go look after her."

"What's your name and address then?" He hoped that it wasn't too far away. If she was getting picked up at four thirty, then Koutarou ideally needed to have her home before then so that she could call up her brother to say that she was home and no longer needed picking up. "I'll take you home if you tell me."

She rattled off her name, age and address as if she was giving an introduction at school. Five years old, she lived close enough to walk home without taking any transport, and the name in particular struck a cord with him: _Akaashi Keiko_. He knew an Akaashi, an Akaashi with a very similar name, which made Koutarou believe it very likely that the girl he was now walking home was _his_ Akaashi's little sister. He didn't even know that Akaashi had a little sister. And he didn't know if it was having the name now, and his eyes were playing tricks on him to make it believable, to make it seem more likely, but he started picking things out, the same eyes, the same dark hair, they might have had the same smile except Koutarou hadn't really seen _his_ Akaashi smile that much, so there wasn't a lot to go on. If Akaashi had her smile though, it would be a cute smile.

It took them a mere fifteen minutes to walk home, and the entire way Keiko had talked about her beloved onii-chan as well as the rest of her family. Koutarou hadn't kept a count of the number of people that she talked about, only knew that it was a large family that she spoke of. If she really was Akaashi's little sister, it would explain how Akaashi was so good at keeping the volleyball team in check; after all, the team was like a big family in a way. Koutarou certainly thought of his team like a family.

His favourite thing about walking Keiko home was when she slipped into calling him _onii-san_. He had always wanted a younger sibling, and it was nice to be called _onii-san_ of her own volition; not like at the festivals when mothers would tell their children that if they gave their coins to the _nice onii-san_ then they could scoop some fish. Keiko hadn't been told any such thing, she was calling Koutarou that because she wanted to, and it made him ridiculously happy.

Keiko led him through the gate to a modern two story house. Koutarou hesitated over pressing on the doorbell, but Keiko opened the door and walked in before he could gather the courage to push it. "Onii-chan I'm home!" She called out cheerfully, and Koutarou was instantly drawn to the person sitting in the genkan and putting on shoes - Keiko was definitely _his_ Akaashi's little sister.

Akaashi hadn't seen him yet though, he wasn't surprised. He could read in Akaashi's face the exact moment when he noticed Keiko's poor state. "Keiko, what happened to you?" His eyes went wide and he reached up for his sister, dusting over her knees and then gently tracing a hand down over her face.

"I fell down." Was all Keiko said, but Koutarou knew that wasn't all that had happened. He had seen the whole thing, she was only so scratched up because he had been too slow to rush over or call out or anything when he had noticed the cats patience wearing thin with her. When Akaashi wasn't so obviously freaking out so much about his sister Koutarou would tell him the full story.

"How? Where? How did you get home? Why did nobody clean you up? Why did you not clean yourself up?" Akaashi was frantically digging through the cupboard in the genkan, and all Koutarou could think was that Akaashi had a good point, and that Koutarou was clearly not older brother material. Keiko had walked home covered in blood, he really should have thought to wash that off at some point, probably when they were still at the shrine. It would have been easy enough to do at the shrine.

Akaashi had a small towel in his hand now, which he brought a corner of to his mouth to suck at before dabbing it at Keiko's cheeks. Koutarou could see the flecks of dried blood clear away, leaving behind a neat line that had been the scratch she had received. He could even see the way Akaashi's body relaxed a little at seeing how little damage had been done to her face. Akaashi then took the towel to Keiko's knees, but that would probably need a bit more than just a dry towel to wash off.

Akaashi still hadn't even sent one glance his way.

"Um, excuse me?" If he wasn't going to look at him, then Koutarou needed to do something to make his presence known. Akaashi's eyes flicked from Keiko, along her arm to where Koutarou was still holding her hand, and then up to his face. The mild scrutiny that he had clearly just been given caused him to drop Keiko's hand and rub at the back of his neck in embarrassment. He didn't have his hair up. Why had he wanted to Akaashi to know he was here? It wasn't important. He could have slipped away and never been noticed and never had to be seen by someone he knew with his hair out of place. He had gotten Keiko home, mission accomplished. "She seems fine, so I guess I'll head out."

Akaashi gazed at him for a moment before bowing his head. "Thank you so much for your help." Ah, this was so embarrassing. First Akaashi had seen him, and then Akaashi had bowed his head to him. They were friends and Akaashi knew his secret now, not so much a secret as he just didn't want people to see him when he was busy with family stuff; and Akaashi certainly didn't need to bow his head to him. Akaashi's sister might as well have been his own little sister, even if he had never known Akaashi to have siblings before today. "Don't worry about it! See you!" Was all he said. If Akaashi was keeping siblings a secret, there was probably no need to ask him to keep Koutarou's secret too, it would probably go without saying. He could just go home and pretend that this afternoon had never happened.

He turned to leave, hoping that the heat he could feel on his face wouldn't be spotted by anyone else, but his leaving was haltered. He must have gotten caught on a hook or a stray screw in the door - not that he expected Akaashi's house to have such a thing - but it turned out that Keiko had taken a hold of his _happi_ and was trying to pull him into the house properly.

"Keiko?" Akaashi asked in a low voice.

"Onii-san, stay here."

Koutarou turned around fully to face the inside of the house. Looking away from Keiko, there was Akaashi looking at him with questions dancing behind his eyes, and beyond Akaashi, he could see what looked like their parents standing further back along the hall and watching the scene. "Eh, but..." He really didn't want to intrude, even though he did kind of want to ask Akaashi why he had never mentioned his family before, because Keiko had made it sound so exciting, but then _he_ made sure that everyone believed his elaborate hair style was natural, a miracle different to the spiritual blessing some claimed he was born with. He didn't like sharing that secret so he really had no good reason to pry into Akaashi's secret family that he had in one and a half years of knowing each other never brought up.

Akaashi turned to look over his shoulder, and the woman standing behind him nodded her head, definitely Akaashi's mum then. He knew that nod, his own mum nodded to his unspoken questions in much the same way. "No, it's fine." Akaashi smiled up at him, it was rare and wonderful, and slightly different to Keiko's but just as welcoming. "I'd like to thank you." Keiko smiled up at him too then, Akaashi's would probably look that bright and wide if he smiled more.

"Sorry for the trouble." He called out as he toed off his shoes. Keiko sat down to take her own off and then pulled out a pair of slippers for him to wear.

Koutarou followed the both of them up the corridor, nodding a greeting to Akaashi's dad as he walked past them and out of the house. He sent another nod in greeting to Akaashi's mum when she left them alone in the kitchen, sliding a door closed to what had looked like their living area.

Keiko sat down at a bench, and patted the seat next to her for Koutarou to sit down. He watched as Akaashi boiled the kettle and then set about making two cups of coffee. Koutarou wanted to call out that he didn't actually like coffee, but then also didn't want to be rude while he was in Akaashi's house and with Akaashi's mother probably able to hear them from behind the door. He wanted to make a good impression on Akaashi's family so that maybe he could learn more about them and spend more time with Akaashi and figure out what exactly it was that gave Akaashi the patience to deal with him day in and day out.

Akaashi set down the cups of coffee in front of them, making an obvious gesture of pushing the mug of coffee towards Koutarou and pushing a glass of water in front of Keiko. She scrunched her face up at it, looking very cute while doing so. He wanted to laugh at it, but he still needed to make a good impression.

"Sorry about this." He said, biting down the smile he wanted to make at Keiko's frown as she brought her glass of water to her lips.

"No, it's fine." Akaashi assured, followed up by him taking a long sip of coffee. The silence in the room seemed awkward to him, it had been Keiko to invite him in, but now that he was inside he didn't really know what to do. He left his coffee untouched, just watched Akaashi drink his, noticing that he had pen marks scribbled across his face. Had he been studying before they arrived and managed to get pen across his cheeks somehow? It was the only thing he could think of, but Akaashi didn't seem like the type to have missed his pen missing the paper and somehow ending up on his face, in multiple straight lines, in one direction, all the way across his entire face...

"Onii-san, do you not like coffee?"

Keiko was obviously too young to know that not mentioning his untouched drink would have been more polite, but he indulged her. "Nope!" He smiled widely at her, trying to ignore the way that Akaashi's face had fallen at the news. Probably angry at himself for his poor hosting abilities, not that Koutarou really cared. It was funny to be able to read that in his face though, he usually found Akaashi hard to read, but that had been obvious. He must have been less stringent about his expressions when in his own home.

Keiko had started talking about coffee and how much she liked it, Koutarou would offer his own if he hadn't seen Akaashi blatantly push it away from her when he had set it on the table. Apparently the teachers had been taking the small group left to wait for pick ups to a cafe for the afternoon, but they didn't let Keiko drink coffee. Koutarou didn't understand why she would even want to drink coffee, he didn't believe people who said that they enjoyed the taste. She continued on herself to tell the story of her playing with the cat, and this must have been when Koutarou had been distracted from work by watching her attempt to attract the cat to her. As Keiko finished up her story, Koutarou turned back towards Akaashi. "I saw her playing with the cat, she played with it just that bit too long - you know how cats are - and it jumped at her, and she tripped."

He reiterated the story the way that Keiko had told it, not saying that the cat had pounced on her, attacked her, Koutarou guessed that she didn't want Akaashi to know that part, even if it was written in the scratches across her face and arms. Going by what Koutarou had seen and the bout of protectiveness that he had seen just with bringing Keiko home, he would follow along with her story. He almost felt like Akaashi would think all cats were demons if he knew that one had attacked his sister, poor Keiko would never be allowed to pat a cat again.

Akaashi nodded his head. "So that explains the scratches. Sorry to cause you all this trouble."

Akaashi looked guilty, he really didn't need to look guilty, there was no reason for it. "It was no trouble at all! Keiko-chan seems to be quite level headed, when I asked her name and address she had no trouble telling me where it was."

Akaashi was apparently shocked by that news, Koutarou saw his body shift a minuscule amount as he absorbed what he had just been told. "Not at all, she's really kind of air headed."

Looking back at Keiko, Koutarou saw her poke her tongue out at Akaashi, who had either missed it or just not reacted to it. He couldn't tell. It was much the same way that he dealt with Koutarou trying to get his attention, and he didn't know how to feel about the fact that Akaashi treated him in a way that he had learned from looking after a five year old sister. "Still, I had no idea you had such a big family Akaashi!"

His words made Akaashi choke on the mouthful of coffee that he had just taken in. He probably should have waited for Akaashi to finish swallowing before bringing it up, but it was too late now, the words had been said.

Akaashi swallowed what was left in his mouth. "What?" Akaashi looked confused.

Right, Akaashi hadn't ever brought up his family, and even though Koutarou was in his house now it probably still wasn't something that he wanted to talk about. They were all sitting in a different room after all, except for Keiko, but she was looking at Akaashi strangely, the same expression, also looking confused. Was it the name he had got wrong when he asked about the family? Perhaps what Keiko had said had only sounded like _Akaashi_ and there was a doppelganger of his setter in front of him and not who he had thought.

"You _are_ Akaashi right?"

Who Koutarou had thought was Akaashi seemed to look between him and Keiko, thinking about something, but Koutarou wasn't sure what. "Yes, that is me. Do you go to my school?"

Koutarou felt like he was going into shock. How did Akaashi not remember him? Had they accidentally hit him with the door when they came in? Akaashi hadn't looked to be sitting that close to the door, but maybe he had been pushed back by it when they came in. "What are you talking about Akaashi?" He had to make an effort not to be too loud, Akaashi's mum was just on the other side of the door. "We just had practice this morning! Am I that forgettable?"

He was pretty sure he wasn't. People usually said that he actually made _quite_ an impression. He stared at Akaashi, widening his eyes and making sure that if Akaashi had hit his head that he could see enough of Koutarou to have it bring back his memories. Some form of recognition flickered behind Akaashi's eyes, but he wasn't any more forthcoming about remembering who he was. "It's Bokuto!"

Akaashi visibly jumped in his seat. "Bokuto-san?" He could have taken to the sky, Akaashi remembered him! He hadn't made Akaashi forget him, that would have been horrible. It would have been horrible for _everyone_ , what would have happened if Akaashi had forgotten that he was on the volleyball team or even how to play? Everyone would have hated Koutarou if that had come to pass, he would have been chased from the team and Fukurodani would have been down two star players and not just one. "...but your hair?"

He watched in horror as Akaashi lifted his hands to the side of his head, pushing up at his short hair to what Koutarou knew was an attempt at his own spiked hair. He had forgotten all about his hair, washed and white in order to work. He had forgotten, it would have been better if Akaashi _had_ forgotten all about him until practice the next morning - if he had shown up without his memories. Then Koutarou would never have to think about people from school seeing him with his hair down.

But Akaashi didn't look completely put together either. "I could say the same for you, why do you have face paint on?" He was pretty sure that it wasn't face paint, but it was enough for him to tease about and got Akaashi's cheeks to flush a pretty red colour that matched the lines on his face. He had never seen his friend flush before, and he got a special joy from it as he watched Akaashi pick up his coffee to sip at and hide his face behind. "You never want to have fun at training!" He whined. It wasn't fair that Akaashi had pen all over his face now but at the last training camp they had been to he hadn't let Koutarou draw on Konoha's face, and he had talked Komi down only a couple of weeks ago when it had been particularly hot and he had suggested practicing receives with water balloons so that everyone could cool down while also training. Akaashi had taken away all the balloons and said that if all they wanted was a water fight they could do it on their own time and not when they were meant to be practicing.

He watched as Akaashi finished off the rest of his coffee having successfully used the drink to wait out the blush on his face. It hadn't worked though, Koutarou had still seen it. His own little secret to take away. He took a sip of his own coffee, just because it was still sitting in front of him and then immediately regretted the decision. How had Akaashi just had a whole cup of this stuff?

Koutarou heard the front door open, and a group of footsteps walking along to the room that Akaashi's mum had disappeared into earlier. It was probably Akaashi's dad getting home again, with more family members. It also meant that he should probably leave because he had been here for a while now and he hadn't exactly been an expected guest.

He stood up to leave, called a farewell to Keiko and followed Akaashi as he led him back to the door. On the way he also saw the wide doorway into the living room filled with a lot of people. Akaashi's parents that he had seen briefly before and who knew how many children - he didn't have time to count as he was passing. He waved at them all anyway and every single one of them waved back at him, what a nice family.

At the doorway Keiko held onto his hand again, looking up at him with tears in her eyes, they way that she had been when Koutarou had first seen her. It made him want to stay, made him want to come back and make sure that she never had to look at anything with tears in her eyes ever again.

But...

He might never see her again, the thought made him sad. Perhaps that was what her tears were for now; this might be the last time that they ever saw each other. He wanted to see her again, she had been fun to talk to, even if she was only five years old - some of his friends probably had something to say about that - and she had called him _onii-san_. That might never happen again. Hopefully Akaashi would let him come over again, he could play with Keiko and maybe meet the rest of Akaashi's family too.

Keiko let go of his hand, and he bid farewell to the both of them again.

As he left, he could hear through the door as he moved away. "Will he come back onii-chan?" It was muffled, so quiet, and whatever Akaashi said in reply was even quieter. He hoped that it would be positive.


End file.
